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> Maybe verified identities an illusion, but sometimes these illusions is all that's needed to feel more relaxed. Author almost realizes that they're asking fo
by yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
> Maybe verified identities an illusion, but sometimes these illusions is all that's needed to feel more relaxed.
Author almost realizes that they're asking for something that is at best a mirage and then bats away that thought[0]. But that's not something that you can casually dismiss near the end of your post, it's a crucial flaw in the whole idea! The comfort that you get from seeing "John Smith" as the contributor instead of "rand_user_43" is indeed an illusion; not only do you have no way of knowing that "John Smith" is their real name, even if you did demand to see their government ID, and even if that was forgery-proof and definitely identified them, they can still commit malicious code; the best hope is that you can impose after-the-fact consequences, but that's... really optimistic, especially as a deterrent.
[0] An alternative steel-man is that the author does grasp that they're pining after something that doesn't actually work but still argue for it, but that feels even less charitable so I'm going with the other interpretation.
- the_mitsuhiko 3y agoAuthor here. I’m not asking for anything in particular, I’m primarily writing about a shift in Open Source culture I have observed.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y agoI mean, maybe s/asking for/wishing for/g? but the summary of the post really reads to me as approximately "I really liked it better when contributors weren't anonymous". I grant that it reads as hedging a lot and acknowledging that that has problems, but it's not at all neutral overall.
- the_mitsuhiko 3y agoI’m not sure myself. I think on the range of that I wish contributors were is some form of known identity but that doesn’t have to be specific form of one. Some form of social contract that when you contribute you are not someone who will disappear. However it looks like that’s something that not everyone subscribes to any more. I would love to know how the kernel and other projects approach this nowadays. Their contribution guides imply an abstract sense of identity but it doesn’t describe much what this entails.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y agoThat's fair. I think I could support wanting stable/persistent identities, but not tying them to real-life identities. Though it's worth pointing out that neither would have helped with the xz incident AIUI.