<#part type=message/rfc822 disposition=inline raw=t> X-From-Line: r...@gnu.org Tue Feb 4 23:28:18 2020 Received: from fencepost.gnu.org (fencepost.gnu.org [209.51.188.10]) by localhost (mpop-1.0.28) with POP3 for <ams>; Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:28:18 +0100 Return-path: <r...@gnu.org> Envelope-to: a...@gnu.org Delivery-date: Tue, 04 Feb 2020 18:27:08 -0500 Received: from localhost ([::1]:45244 helo=gnu.org) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:DHE_RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:128) (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from <r...@gnu.org>) id 1iz7am-0000LC-IB; Tue, 04 Feb 2020 18:26:53 -0500 Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2020 18:26:51 -0500 From: "Richard Stallman (Chief GNUisance)" <r...@gnu.org> To: r...@gnu.org Subject: What's GNU -- and what's not Message-ID: <20200204232649.ga...@gnu.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline X-UIDL: 0D[!!:SV!!lI6!!ABY"! X-RMAIL-ATTRIBUTES: -D------
The GNU Project is sending this message to each GNU package maintainer. You may have recently received an email asking you to review a document titled "GNU Social Contract" and then to endorse it or reject it. It does not entirely accord with the GNU Project's views. It was created by some GNU participants who are trying to push changes on the GNU Project. The message also proposed to "define" what it means to be a "member of GNU", and cited a web page presented as a "wiki for GNU maintainers", It may have given the impression that they were doing all those things on behalf of the GNU Project. That is not the case. The document, the wiki, and the proposed idea of "members" have no standing in the GNU Project, which is not considering such steps. The use of a domain not affiliated with GNU reflects this fact. GNU package maintainers have committed to do work to maintain and add to the GNU system, but not anything beyond that. We have never pressed contributors to endorse the GNU Project philosophy, or any other philosophical views, because people are welcome to contribute to GNU regardless of their views. To change that -- to impose such requirements -- would be radical, gratuitous, and divisive, so the GNU Project is not entertaining the idea. Likewise, we will not ask package maintainers to be "members" instead of volunteers. If you contribute to GNU, you are already a member of the GNU community. The wiki that they set up "for GNU maintainers" represents them, not the GNU Project. People are always free to publish what they think the GNU Project should do, but should not presume it will be accepted or followed by the GNU Project. -- Dr Richard Stallman Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org) <#/part>