4 ms·

If someone is more interested in receiving credit than fixing bugs, OSS might not be the best place to hang out.

bakugo 3y ago
I'm sure the OSS ecosystem would be better for everyone if every project started removing the names of contributors from the commit log and replacing them all with the name of the primary maintainer. Everyone loves it when they dedicate time out of their life to improving something and it ends up under someone else's name, after all.
- JodieBenitez 3y ago
  Yeah, it's baffling to me how many people here have little consideration for the recognition of work. I sincerely hope these people never ever attempt a management career.
  - cp9 3y ago
    this thread is *wild*, everyone is jumping down the OPs throat for the crime of doing a ton of work while receiving zero credit for it and having the gall to be upset about it
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      He did a ton of work and got credited for it. The four line patch isn't a ton of work once you've done the RCA and besides it required work by the maintainer to get it to pass. And he changed the essence of the interaction with the maintainer, who isn't going to hang around to teach a newcomer how to properly submit a patch in a cycle of back-and-forths (of which there were already plenty) in a security issue.
      - cp9 3y ago
        > The four line patch isn't a ton of work once you've done the RCA and besides it required work by the maintainer to get it to pass the debugging *is* the work! the work for which he went uncredited, that's the crux of the whole thing. he got a Reported-By which just means he ran into a bug and told someone about it, not that he root caused it, wrote a patch and bothered to submit it.
        jacquesm 3y ago
        Reported-by is the normal response for this kind of patch, 1000's of examples in the kernel mailing lists. This whole thing tastes to me like a pay-off for an unwanted gift, you don't go into this sort of an exchange on a security mailing list expecting kernel contributor credit for fixing a bug. That's just not how it works. Maybe it should work like that but it simply doesn't. OP had pre-set expectations and those were found to be in the wrong, nobody got 'robbed' and misrepresenting the exchange to one that makes the kernel maintainer seem like an asshole when that wasn't at all how it went down makes me feel even less good about the whole thing. Reported-by ranges the gamut of 'I ran into this bug' to 'I found this issue and here is my patch, which I hope is useful to you'. If you want to negotiate credit rules for 4 line patches up front you are of course welcome to do so but keep in mind that maintainers can and do accept patches, rewrite them and contribute them under their own name (and their responsibility), especially security patches.
        JodieBenitez 3y ago
        I don't think the number of lines is relevant. A patch is a patch and the author should be credited as such. > Maybe it should work like that Definitely
        ylyn 3y ago
        > A patch is a patch and the author should be credited as such. But the patch was not taken. The maintainer fixed it a different way. So credit is given for reporting the issue and suggesting a fix, and that is what is represented by the Reported-By. Is that so hard to understand?
  - ylyn 3y ago
    I can't believe people are trying to extrapolate this situation into how someone would act as a manager in a company. Can't you see that the kernel has its own conventions and practices that are entirely different from typical corporate practices?
- shortcake27 3y ago
  This isn’t even remotely close to what I said, and I can’t even see how it could be misinterpreted so badly. Did you reply to the correct comment? If receiving credit is your primary motivation, over actually solving problems that affect people other than yourself, I don’t think that’s a great attitude towards OSS. I’m genuinely surprised this is even considered a hot take.
throeaaysn 3y ago
[dead]
m-p-3 3y ago
Why not? OP identified a problem that affects everyone and inplemented a fix. Maybe the original fix wasn't as optimized as it should be, but they deserve proper recognition nonetheless. In the OSS world, recognition and reputation are important.
brabel 3y ago
And who are you to decided that? How about people who demonstrate incredibly judgemental behaviour such as yourself, do you have a place in OSS... and is somehow qualified to judge who else does? Don't think so.
- shortcake27 3y ago
  I’m not deciding anything. I’m saying that if credit is all you care about, OSS isn’t the best place to hang out, because credit is not guaranteed. Yeah, I’ve contributed to OSS. And more often than not, I haven’t received credit. I couldn’t care less.

I'm sure the OSS ecosystem would be better for everyone if every project started removing the names of contributors from the commit log and replacing them all with the name of the primary maintainer. Everyone loves it when they dedicate time out of their life to improving something and it ends up under someone else's name, after all.

JodieBenitez 3y ago
Yeah, it's baffling to me how many people here have little consideration for the recognition of work. I sincerely hope these people never ever attempt a management career.
- cp9 3y ago
  this thread is *wild*, everyone is jumping down the OPs throat for the crime of doing a ton of work while receiving zero credit for it and having the gall to be upset about it
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    He did a ton of work and got credited for it. The four line patch isn't a ton of work once you've done the RCA and besides it required work by the maintainer to get it to pass. And he changed the essence of the interaction with the maintainer, who isn't going to hang around to teach a newcomer how to properly submit a patch in a cycle of back-and-forths (of which there were already plenty) in a security issue.
    - cp9 3y ago
      > The four line patch isn't a ton of work once you've done the RCA and besides it required work by the maintainer to get it to pass the debugging *is* the work! the work for which he went uncredited, that's the crux of the whole thing. he got a Reported-By which just means he ran into a bug and told someone about it, not that he root caused it, wrote a patch and bothered to submit it.
      - jacquesm 3y ago
        Reported-by is the normal response for this kind of patch, 1000's of examples in the kernel mailing lists. This whole thing tastes to me like a pay-off for an unwanted gift, you don't go into this sort of an exchange on a security mailing list expecting kernel contributor credit for fixing a bug. That's just not how it works. Maybe it should work like that but it simply doesn't. OP had pre-set expectations and those were found to be in the wrong, nobody got 'robbed' and misrepresenting the exchange to one that makes the kernel maintainer seem like an asshole when that wasn't at all how it went down makes me feel even less good about the whole thing. Reported-by ranges the gamut of 'I ran into this bug' to 'I found this issue and here is my patch, which I hope is useful to you'. If you want to negotiate credit rules for 4 line patches up front you are of course welcome to do so but keep in mind that maintainers can and do accept patches, rewrite them and contribute them under their own name (and their responsibility), especially security patches.
        JodieBenitez 3y ago
        I don't think the number of lines is relevant. A patch is a patch and the author should be credited as such. > Maybe it should work like that Definitely
        ylyn 3y ago
        > A patch is a patch and the author should be credited as such. But the patch was not taken. The maintainer fixed it a different way. So credit is given for reporting the issue and suggesting a fix, and that is what is represented by the Reported-By. Is that so hard to understand?
- ylyn 3y ago
  I can't believe people are trying to extrapolate this situation into how someone would act as a manager in a company. Can't you see that the kernel has its own conventions and practices that are entirely different from typical corporate practices?
shortcake27 3y ago
This isn’t even remotely close to what I said, and I can’t even see how it could be misinterpreted so badly. Did you reply to the correct comment? If receiving credit is your primary motivation, over actually solving problems that affect people other than yourself, I don’t think that’s a great attitude towards OSS. I’m genuinely surprised this is even considered a hot take.

throeaaysn 3y ago

[dead]

m-p-3 3y ago

Why not? OP identified a problem that affects everyone and inplemented a fix. Maybe the original fix wasn't as optimized as it should be, but they deserve proper recognition nonetheless. In the OSS world, recognition and reputation are important.

brabel 3y ago

And who are you to decided that? How about people who demonstrate incredibly judgemental behaviour such as yourself, do you have a place in OSS... and is somehow qualified to judge who else does? Don't think so.

shortcake27 3y ago
I’m not deciding anything. I’m saying that if credit is all you care about, OSS isn’t the best place to hang out, because credit is not guaranteed. Yeah, I’ve contributed to OSS. And more often than not, I haven’t received credit. I couldn’t care less.