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tempers running high...


I can see that tempers are running high here and I'm not certain what
to do about it.

It seems ironic that a lot of the heat is being generated because people
REALLY want to help but there is disagreement on how to help.

For the record, I don't really care much about the copyright issue.  I
wish I did have a strong opinion about this but I don't.  I'm happy
to apply the Red Hat stamp to documentation, if it helps.

I thought that it was probably important to have a uniform copyright
on all of the documentation and I thought that if we put a Red Hat
on it, people might think twice about abusing the words that you all
have labored over.

If I am understanding Suhaib's concerns, I think it is basically the
above plus I believe that he is concerned that despite the fact that
Harold wrote his text from scratch, there is still some issue of
ownership since Harold had already read the previous FAQ.  That
means that he could be "tainted".

Again, I don't think that this is a big deal.  No one is going to
make any money from this (I think).  I would just suggest a copyright
like the ones that show up on the Cygwin sources:

/* sigproc.cc: inter/intra signal and sub process handler

   Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Red Hat, Inc.

   Written by Christopher Faylor <cgf@cygnus.com>

This file is part of Cygwin.

This software is a copyrighted work licensed under the terms of the
Cygwin license.  Please consult the file "CYGWIN_LICENSE" for
details. */

That still gives the writer the recognition they deserve but adds
a perceived Red Hat protection to the document.

Or, maybe you should just adopt the XFree86 copyrights.  I have zero
problems with that.

Regarding the issue of style sheets and other contributions, it seems
like these are just the signs of a project maturing and developing
procedures.  In my experience, disagreements over style usually result
in real improvements in quality, IF you can come to some kind of
compromise.

I think that Robert has been willing to compromise as long as he
understands the issues.  That has been my experience with him,
at least.

I just want to clarify the way things are working currently.

It is obvious that Suhaib is the project head and has final veto over
everything.

Rob is the documentation maintainer (right?) and has final say on
the content of documentation except when overruled by Suhaib.

Harold is the brilliant programmer who is responsible for a lot (most?)
of the recent X server improvements.  He has been quite prolific both on
the code and documentation front.

Me?  I'm Uncle Chris.  I'm available for consultation and you can all
pull my finger for a good laugh, if you want.

There are a lot of other contributors here (I'm actually jealous) but I
think the three main ones are Suhaib, Robert, and Harold or at least
these three are the main ones who show up on the mailing list.

I would strongly urge that these three guys "sit down" privately and
come up with a game plan for how they want submission flow to operate.
Maybe they have more names they want to add to the list.  If necessary,
I'm even willing to set up a real time chat, if that will help.

So, I hope what we're seeing here is the sign of a group suffering growing
pains.  I'm really proud of the progress that has been made here (as all
good uncles are proud of their nieces and nephews) and I hope that we're
seeing growth rather than the sign of splintering.

So, what do you all think?  Should I set up a chat?  Not needed?  Too late?
Go away?  Etc?

cgf


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