Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 21 Apr 2001 19:47:06 -0400 | From | "Eric S. Raymond" <> | Subject | Re: Request for comment -- a better attribution system |
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Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>: > It scales perfectly.
I must say, in the most respectful way possible, "bullshit!"
Alan, if MAINTAINERS scaled perfectly I wouldn't have had to spend three months just trying to figure out who was reponsible for each of the [Cc]onfig.in files. And even with that amount of effort mostly failing.
You only think the present attribution system scales well because your position is, shall we say, *privileged*. Maintainers come to you; you don't normally have to try to track them down. Me, I *know* that Andreas Dilger identified a real problem, because I've barked my fscking shins on it. In two separate contexts now.
(There's a related rant I'm not ready to utter yet about how lkml's social machinery is very poorly adapted to solving problems that cross boundaries between different hackers' personal fiefdoms.)
I'm an unusually stubborn and persistent person, as you have cause to know. I really wonder how much good work we've lost because people less stubborn than me simply gave up on the friction costs of trying to identify the responsible person(s) for the bits they wanted to change.
Andreas saw the problem, and he also saw the solution. It's to make the structure of the attribution system match the structure of the code -- and of the social machine that surrounds the code. -- <a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>
No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it. -- 16 Am. Jur. Sec. 177 late 2d, Sec 256 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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