SubmittingPatches: allow non-real name contributions

Our submission guidelines require people to use their real name, but
this is not always suitable for various reasons.

For people who are transgender or non-binary and are transitioning or
who think they might want to transition, it can be a major obstacle and
cause major discomfort to require the use of their real name.  This is
made worse by the fact that Git provides no way to change names built
into history, so the use of a deadname is forever.  Our code of conduct
states that we "pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an
open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community," and
changing this policy is one way we can improve things for contributors.

In addition, there are some developers who are so widely known
pseudonymously that they have a Wikipedia page with their handle and no
real name.  It would seem silly to reject patches from people who are
known and respected in their open-source community just because they
don't wish to share a real name.

There are also other good reasons why people might operate
pseudonymously: because they or their family members are well known and
they wish to protect their privacy, because of current or past
harassment or retaliation or fear of that happening in the future, or
because of concerns about unwanted attention from government officials
or other authority figures.  As much as possible, we want to welcome
contributions from anyone who is willing to participate positively in
our community without having them worry about their safety or privacy.

In all of these cases, we should allow people to proceed using a
preferred name or pseudonymously if, in their best judgment, that's the
right thing to do.  State that it is common to use a real name but
explicitly mention that contributors who are not comfortable doing so or
prefer to operate pseudonymously or under a preferred name can proceed
otherwise, provided the name is distinctive, identifying, and not
misleading.  For instance, using U+2060 (WORD JOINER) as one's ID would
likely be distinctive but not identifying, since most people would have
trouble reading it due to its zero-width nature.

We prohibit identities which are misleading, since our goal is to create
a community which works together with a common goal, and misleading or
deceiving others is not conducive to good community or compatible with
our code of conduct, nor is it compatible with making a legal assertion
about the provenance of one's code.

Explicitly prohibit anonymous contributions to ensure that we have some
line of provenance to a known (if pseudonymous) author who might be able
to respond to questions about it.  Explain that this is the reason we
have this policy to help contributors understand the rationale better.

Use "some form of your real name" since some current contributors use
shortened forms of their name or use initials, which have always been
considered acceptable.  This helps guide people who would be fine using
their real name but have misconfigured `user.name` thinking it is
intended to be a username or is used for authentication (despite our
documentation to the contrary), but also allows for a variety of
circumstances where the contributor would feel more comfortable not
doing so.

Note that this policy is the same as that of the Linux kernel[0] and the
CNCF[1], as well as many smaller projects.  The Linux kernel patch was
Acked-by one of the Linux Foundation's lawyers, Michael Dolan, so it
appears these changes have had legal review.

Additionally, retain the section header ID for ease of linking across
versions.

[0] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=d4563201f33a022fc0353033d9dfeb1606a88330
[1] https://github.com/cncf/foundation/blob/659fd32c86dc/dco-guidelines.md

Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
index 958e3cc3d54741261902123dd832619047d51819..86ca7f6a78a9b69294eb97bbbc1138376f40198b 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
+++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
@@ -408,8 +408,15 @@ your patch differs from project to project, so it may be different
 from that of the project you are accustomed to.
 
 [[real-name]]
-Also notice that a real name is used in the `Signed-off-by` trailer. Please
-don't hide your real name.
+Please use a known identity in the `Signed-off-by` trailer, since we cannot
+accept anonymous contributions. It is common, but not required, to use some form
+of your real name. We realize that some contributors are not comfortable doing
+so or prefer to contribute under a pseudonym or preferred name and we can accept
+your patch either way, as long as the name and email you use are distinctive,
+identifying, and not misleading.
+
+The goal of this policy is to allow us to have sufficient information to contact
+you if questions arise about your contribution.
 
 [[commit-trailers]]
 If you like, you can put extra trailers at the end: