discuss: Dealing with poor maintenance by maintainers
Subject:
Re: Dealing with poor maintenance by maintainers
From:
David Lawyer ####@####.####
Date:
13 May 2002 16:09:47 -0000
Message-Id: <20020512223646.A332@lafn.org>
On Sun, May 12, 2002 at 05:03:25PM -0400, Tabatha Persad wrote:
> I agree, David.
>
> Since I feel like a member of an Open Source community, I don't think it
> would be unreasonable if the LDP told me when submitting my new howto that in
> the event I become unreachable, I allow permission for a member of the LDP to
> ensure my documentation remains up to date.
>
[snip]
>
> Otherwise the repository becomes a library of dead documentation. And that
> doesn't help anybody.
It's not this bad since the doc goes into "unmaintained". Also, even if
the doc doesn't permit modification, one can start over and create a new
doc on the same subject. Since facts are not copyrighted, the new
author may use some of the "facts" from the old document plus new info
as well. Of course, this is a lot harder than just editing the old doc
to bring it up to date. But starting over from scratch may result in a
better document.
> I would see this standard as a step in the right direction from an
> author point of view, since if I can't be available to help, then
> someone else will, all to keep my original document "in circulation."
> After all, just because I stopped maintaining it, doesn't mean I
> wouldn't still get credit for being the original author. No harm done
> to me!
This may be true in the short run. Bur after a number of years, the doc
may be almost completely rewritten and the credit due to the original
author is not very significant. If it's about hardware, the hardware
that the ordinal author wrote about may become obsolete and relegated to
a historical section (or another doc.). But if one doesn't have time to
maintain a doc, and lets it become outdated, then they don't get much
credit for such a doc either.
David Lawyer
