Last Comment Bug 53415 - My name is misspelled in the credits
: My name is misspelled in the credits
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
[rtm+] no risk, landed on trunk, land...
:
Product: SeaMonkey
Classification: Client Software
Component: General (show other bugs)
: Trunk
: All All
: P3 normal (vote)
: ---
Assigned To: Ben Bucksch (:BenB)
: Doron Rosenberg (IBM)
about:credits
Depends on:
Blocks:
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2000-09-20 13:38 PDT by Braden
Modified: 2004-11-22 17:25 PST (History)
9 users (show)
See Also:
Crash Signature:
QA Whiteboard:


Attachments
Fix for source tree, version 1 (427 bytes, patch)
2000-10-06 15:48 PDT, Ben Bucksch (:BenB)
no flags Details | Diff | Review
source for http://mozilla.org/credits/index.html as of Oct 12, 2000 (10.51 KB, text/plain)
2000-10-12 20:26 PDT, Dawn Endico
no flags Details
Fix, version 2. Also contains names added recently. Corresponds to the html files endico just attached. (3.32 KB, patch)
2000-10-12 20:34 PDT, Ben Bucksch (:BenB)
no flags Details | Diff | Review
proposed fix (1.48 KB, patch)
2000-10-16 20:19 PDT, Chris Waterson
no flags Details | Diff | Review

Summon comment box

Description Braden 2000-09-20 13:38:08 PDT
It's "Braden", not "Branden".
Comment 1 R.K.Aa. 2000-09-20 14:28:18 PDT
I believe issues like that should be addressed to credits@mozilla.org with the
 subject "Mozilla Credits"

Comment 2 stephend@netscape.com (gone - use stephen.donner@gmail.com instead) 2000-09-20 20:53:02 PDT
Passing this to endico, she handles that...
Comment 3 Dawn Endico 2000-09-20 21:09:58 PDT
and what's the last name?
Comment 4 Dawn Endico 2000-10-02 19:10:29 PDT
fixed
Comment 5 Braden 2000-10-06 14:26:33 PDT
Um, I'm looking at build 2000100509 and the problem is still there.
Comment 6 Dawn Endico 2000-10-06 15:12:21 PDT
The real credits list is the one on the web site and the web site is
correct.

Ben, this is exactly why i'm against having the credits file checked into
the source tree. What a mess this is to clean up. There's no way I"m going
to check this into 4 places each time I update the credits file.

The new credits file needs to be checked into the trunk and each major branch.
You really must add something to the build system that pulls the credits
page from the web site's cvs (and edits the text if you like). You can make
this optional for people like yourself who can't pull from the web site.
Comment 7 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-06 15:21:13 PDT
Brendan, can I do this stuff without r=/a=?
PDT, what about the branch?

> You really must add something to the build system

File a bug about this problem. (But I don't like the solution you propose.)
Comment 8 Brendan Eich [:brendan] 2000-10-06 15:36:08 PDT
Ben, I don't like the solution you've imposed, and neither does endico.  Why do 
you want to spend more of your life hand-copying edits from one file to another?

Attach a patch.  endico and I can review and approve, pdt will probably approve.

/be
Comment 9 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-06 15:46:07 PDT
> Why do you want to spend more of your life hand-copying edits from one file
> to another?

I don't want to, and I don't like the current solution. Poosible solution I'd
prefer:
- Make the copy inthe source tree the main copy, and make the website script
fetch it from there (i.e. the other way around)
- Even better: As endico (and shaver, I think) said, the webpage is also
generated from some internal database. Make that generator generate two
versions: one for the website and one for the source code tree.
Comment 10 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-06 15:48:28 PDT
Created attachment 16393 [details] [diff] [review]
Fix for source tree, version 1
Comment 11 Brendan Eich [:brendan] 2000-10-06 15:52:25 PDT
a=brendan@mozilla.org.  Presumably, r=endico@mozilla.org.  Adding rtm keyword 
and [rtm+] (_in loco_ mitchell@mozilla.org, mozilla.org manager).

Let's not repeat this little exercise, eh?

/be
Comment 12 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-06 16:12:47 PDT
> File a bug about this problem

Bug 55584.
Comment 13 Dawn Endico 2000-10-06 16:57:41 PDT
Hang on while i gather up the latest credits requests and check them in.
Comment 14 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-06 17:11:29 PDT
endico, can we postpone this until the last moment? I don't want to do this 2
more times.
Comment 15 Dawn Endico 2000-10-06 17:42:17 PDT
I personally don't mind postponing, but the closer to rtm, the harder it
should be to get approval so make sure that brendan doesn't mind this getting
pushed off. Try and figure out what the latest date for the checkin should be.
Comment 16 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-06 17:50:36 PDT
PDT, what is the last possible day for checkins to credits.html on the N6
branch?
Comment 17 selmer (gone) 2000-10-10 17:47:18 PDT
This looks like it's approved for the trunk.  Are you actually trying to get
this on the RTM branch?
Comment 18 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-10 17:53:38 PDT
selmer, I think so. Please also answer my last question - there were more
requests and still more to come.
Comment 19 Brendan Eich [:brendan] 2000-10-10 17:58:38 PDT
Ben, why are you asking foolish questions like "what's the last day for checkins
on the N6 branch?"

Couldn't this firedrill have been avoided by hyperlinking to the credits page on
mozilla.org?

/be
Comment 20 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-10 18:17:35 PDT
> Ben, why are you asking foolish questions like "what's the last day for
> checkins on the N6 branch?"

What's foolish about this question?
OK, I don't need the *really* last day. I just need a "cut" time.

> Couldn't this firedrill have been avoided by hyperlinking to the credits page
> on mozilla.org?

Yes, but not without creating larger problems.
<quote src="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55584">
- some users have no or intermittend access to the internet (but use Mozilla
locally, e.g. Mailnews).
- there is a semantical difference between the contributors to a particular
version and the current Mozilla contributors
- <http://www.mozilla.org/credits/> is not garantted to persist, as
<about:authors> in 4.x demonstrates
</quote>
Comment 21 Brendan Eich [:brendan] 2000-10-10 18:25:53 PDT
The PDT may not bother giving you a cut time.  If I were them, I might say "last
week".

Who cares if credits are invisible when off the web?  I don't.  People who care
about credits in all cases and embeddings need to find more important things to
care about, in my opinion.

There's no problem with hosting a version-specific credits file on mozilla.org,
for as long as there are hits from that version.

/be
Comment 22 Dawn Endico 2000-10-12 20:26:38 PDT
Created attachment 16962 [details]
source for http://mozilla.org/credits/index.html as of Oct 12, 2000
Comment 23 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-12 20:34:15 PDT
Created attachment 16965 [details] [diff] [review]
Fix, version 2. Also contains names added recently. Corresponds to the html files endico just attached.
Comment 24 Dawn Endico 2000-10-12 20:41:28 PDT
r=endico@mozilla.org

This patch fixes spelling mistakes for two names and adds
a couple dozen new people.
Comment 25 Scott Collins 2000-10-12 20:50:21 PDT
sr=scc
Comment 26 Phil Peterson 2000-10-12 21:49:52 PDT
rtm-. Leave it as is on the N6 branch and fix it right (hosted on mozilla.org) 
on the trunk. We're looking for fixes for crash/data loss/must fix bugs on the 
branch, and this is so not even close.
Comment 27 Braden 2000-10-13 08:40:09 PDT
Reconsider. This *is* a data loss bug, as far as I'm concerned. And it's no
risk.

Phil: Either spell my name correctly or take it out of your product.
Comment 28 Jim Roskind 2000-10-13 20:38:47 PDT
Sorry, rtm-minus (please do not land on N 6 branch).  This should have been in
long ago (before the branch!).   I don't know who is responsible for maintaining
this, but sitting on these changes is bad, and now we're creating Netscape
candidate builds, and don't want folks hacking the repository unless it is
critical. We're now at the point where we're trying to consider bugs that would
force us to pull the build from the wire. We've had to say "rtm-minus" to a pile
of more critical items. :-( :-(

In days of old, the folks with the cvs checkin permission would land their own
names as needed.  I don't know why this got funneled through a meta-bug.

(Side comment: This *really* saddens me.  The only good news is that the link
atop the page points back to mozilla, where the improved content can reside...
if this would just get checked into the trunk RSN!).
Comment 29 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-13 21:12:12 PDT
> I don't know who is responsible for maintaining
> this, but sitting on these changes is bad

It *has* been updated shortly before the branch, this are only the changes since
then.

> In days of old, the folks with the cvs checkin permission would land their own
> names as needed.

Yes, this is the scheme I'd like to see as well, see bug 55584.
Comment 30 Braden 2000-10-14 16:31:16 PDT
Jim: Your comments fly in the face of reason. The patch is ZERO RISK.

If my name *does* appear misspelled in your product, I will take whatever petty
retaliatory action I (legally) have at my disposal. That probably won't be much;
but who knows, word just might get around about how Mozilla developers can
expect to be treated by Netscape.
Comment 31 Blake Ross 2000-10-14 17:18:26 PDT
Braden, this is not a big deal at all.  The majority of Netscape users won't 
even know that credits.html exists in their hard drive unless they have the 
hidden "show about as modal dialog" pref on, because the normal Help | About 
just opens about:, which in turn links to mozilla.org/credits.
Comment 32 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-14 19:43:33 PDT
> about:, which in turn links to mozilla.org/credits.

Wrong. We use the local version.
Comment 33 Jason Eager 2000-10-15 12:55:22 PDT
Umm, bug 54751 STILL has a "blank check" rtm++.

I can't see how that general non-crashing bug still has a rtm++ while
important personal bugs such as this get a rtm-.(Yes, I know, it's a MARKETING
thing. The managers will keep it rtm++ until the day NS6 ships...well, this
should then be considered a LEGAL thing.)

It's not NICE to misspell and not fix the name of someone who spent his or her
OWN personal time to try to make Netscape 6 a success. It's the LEAST that you
can do. And this bug has been filed since *9/20*. It's NOT like he did it at the
last moment.

To be blunt, Netscape management, and the ultra conservative tactics of the PDT
have turned off many outside contributors. Many outside contributors (myself
included) are waiting for Netscape 6 to ship before continuing to aid with
Mozilla development, so we can deal with more reasonable Mozilla management when
getting our patches approved. I know that reasonable statements can be made the
other way about the PDT, about how draconian change control was needed to get
the product out the door, etc.

However, there is NO excuse in not fixing this. Given that "recognition" is the
currency that contributors are paid with in Open Source projects, refusing to
fix a misspelled name is a SEVERE slap in the face to any contributor.

If this was a trademark issue, you'd be all over it.
Comment 34 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-15 13:08:55 PDT
> this bug has been filed since *9/20*. It's NOT like he did it at the
> last moment.

For the record: The local credits file (the one that will ship with Netscape
6.0, if this bug doesn't get RTM++) was last updated 9/15. This spelling error
is in the credits (both web and local) since day one (1999-08-26).

Also note that the "no risk" in the status whiteboard was inserted by scc. I
also consider the risk as neglectible.
Comment 35 Blake Ross 2000-10-15 13:12:17 PDT
Oh god jce, now you've taken to yelling rants for other people?  54751 was 
reopened which is why it still has a "blank check" ++, and you can probably 
expect it to be minused on Monday.  It was ++'d 10/3, when most things with 
patches were being ++'d.  Selmer's 10/13 comment clearly shows PDT isn't 
willing to leave it ++'d "until the day NS6 ships", as you exaggerate.  In any 
case, I fail to understand how fixing the default skin for the product is 
comparable to someone's name being misspelled in a local copy of the credits.

You can rant and yell at Netscape management all you want (do you have a fetish 
with capitalized words or something?) but this isn't their fault, as much as 
you're eager for it to be.  If a Mozilla contributor (names withheld here) 
hadn't decided to check a copy of the credits into the build, this never would 
have happened.  In any case, this is a Mozilla.org-hosted page.  This is a list 
of Mozilla contributors.  In other words, this has nothing to do with Netscape 
management.  Get over it.

If you think PDT's "tactics" (e.g. wanting to ship a product..gasp!) are "ultra 
conservative", you've obviously never needed to ship a product.  Your argument 
about waiting for NS6 to ship before getting patches approved is nonsensical, 
because PDT doesn't need to approve mozilla trunk patches.  

Oh, and um yeah, if it was a trademark of course they'd be all over it.  Since 
they could, you know, get sued?  Haven't you ever worked for a corporation 
before, or is this a new idea?

Yes, this fix could go in without any risk, and yes, it'd be great if it did.  
But the arguments you present for doing so aren't valid.
Comment 36 Jason Eager 2000-10-15 14:23:32 PDT
My logic is such:

1) PDT seems willing to rtm++ bug 54751, a purely cosmetic bug, which does
introduce some risk into the product (Those "black bars" in Mail/news are still
not fixed). So why aren't they willing to fix another cosmetic but important bug
dealing with a person's name being misspelled?

2) A local version of credits does need to get checked into the tree, because
the list of contributors who contributed to Netscape 6.0 and Netscape 6.2 will
probably be different. This difference can be best captured by adding it to each
release. The way that we're currently doing it is inefficent, which is why a bug
has been filed on that process.

3) The PDT doesn't seem to understand how important contributor lists really are
to open source projects. Recognition is the currency of payment to contributors.
If they understood this, then they wouldn't hesitate in checking this in. I am
giving them a warning that this is one of the quickest ways to anger the outside
contributors to Mozilla.

4) I won't go into detail about all of the questionable decisions made by the
PDT in the past week (or month) that have had to be violently appealed. Note
that I did give them the concession that this might be what they have to do to
get it shipped.

5) Although in theory, people don't have to do much with the PDT in order to get
things landed in the trunk, in practice, people are being pretty much as
conservative as they can with checking things into the trunk because the PDT is
using it as a test bed for landing patches that are longer then one to two lines
of code. No major steps forward are going to be made on the trunk (Like checking
in all those patches that the PDT deemed to be "too risky" for NS6) until after
NS6 ships.

Yes, I have worked for (several) corporations. No, I have never dealt with a
change control team that was this conservative, yet somehow, we managed to ship
on time most of the time. The PDT is taking an arbritrary approach here, and
they know it. If they had a consistant logical basis to make their decisions,
then they wouldn't say "We've denied checkins for more important items", they'd
say exactly why they think that checking this into the branch would hurt the
product.

You don't ship with Trademark violations because you'll get sued because you've
pissed off a corporation. You shouldn't ship with misspelled contributor names
because that pisses off individuals who have helped with the product, and leads
to very bad rapport.

I'd be much more understanding of the PDT's decision if we had gone gold with
NS6, as in the master cd had already been burnt. However, there would be
absolutely no harm done to the product if this was checked in today, and not
checking this in will lead to a great amount of anger and suspicion from the
outside contributors.
Comment 37 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-15 14:54:10 PDT
FIXED on trunk.
Comment 38 Braden 2000-10-15 17:13:49 PDT
Thanks, Ben.

Blake: The problem here is that not only quality but *basic decency* has taken a
back seat to *process*. Maybe that doesn't bother you. It bothers me.
Comment 39 Blake Ross 2000-10-15 17:18:33 PDT
Braden, yes, I don't disagree with you -- the issue sucks.  But I find it 
ironic that you're thanking the very person who caused you this trouble to 
begin with.

/me leaves this issue...
Comment 40 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-15 17:40:07 PDT
What? Can we please stop the finger-pointing?

FYI: I did not add the local credits file. It is used by the about /dialog/ for
a long time already. And that is for a reason: One of them is that the webpage
has a banner all kind of other stuff, which does't really work in the about
dialog. More details see bug 40024. And we want to use the about dialog
eventually, not?
All I practically did was *changing the link* in the about page to point to the
local version. This was to make the about dialog eventually work (because the
about dialog displays the about page, see above) and for reasons discussed in
bug 55584.

Again: The local version has been updated (by me) shortly before the branching.
If somebody missed this, it is unfortunate, but certainly not my fault.
Comment 41 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-15 18:46:37 PDT
> If somebody missed this, it is unfortunate

Don't midunderstand me: IMHO, it should be checked into the branch.
Comment 42 Brendan Eich [:brendan] 2000-10-15 19:44:13 PDT
If module owners are holding the trunk hostage to the central-planning commisars
of the branch (note that I'm not saying the branch *shouldn't* be under central
planning right now), jce2 and others need to make a stink in a more public
place, and with specific evidence, than in this bug.  I and other staff will do
whatever it takes to get good, well-reviewed and tested patches into the trunk,
whether or not they're relevant to the branch.

Yes, the PDT is arbitrary.  What do you expect from a group of more than two or
three people with different judgments working on a set of bugs for which no one
can write unambiguous approval criteria?  But suppose the PDT does simplify its
rules brutally: only crash fixes and data loss repairs ("small, safe, and tested
patches") will be accepted.

To some arbitrary extent, the PDT is doing this.  What I object to is not so
much "arbitrary" decision making in a product's end-game.  It's the artlessness.
Netscape 6 will ship with crash and data loss bugs in spite of the restriction
to take (and presumably "focus" people on developing) fixes only for such severe
bugs.  But it will also have other, sometimes cosmetic, often embarrassingly bad
bugs, whose easy fixes were left out *with no significant reduction of risk, and
with no improvement to the crash and data-loss find/fix rate.*  (And of course,
there will be more than a few cosmetic fixes that are sanctioned, arbitrarily.)

The inconsistent attempt to restrict bugfixes to only the most severe bugs is
just artless process, in my view.  It does not make the product better.  It does
not make the necessarily arbitrary decision-making more winning, but less.  The
problem is not the arbitrariness; it's the quality of the non-crash/data-loss
decisions being made.  Great end-game product management requires some artful
combination of more rigid, group-thinking process and more flexible, individual
good judgment.

The PDT should say why this bug is not important enough to let someone with CVS
access update the branch (at no cost to netscape.com staff), instead of falsely
claiming that only "pull-it-from-the-wire" bugs are being fixed.  Everyone can
see that other severity-level bugs are still being fixed, although soon (after
the 16th?) it may be that only truly-pull-it-from-the-wire bugs will be fixed.

/be
Comment 43 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-15 19:56:07 PDT
For the case we do get rtm++: Could anybody (preferably not @netscape.com) with
a N6 branch or however this is done then move my checkin to the branch, please?
I didn't do this before, and I don't want to screw things up due to my
unexperienceness with CVS / Bonsai.
Comment 44 Blake Ross 2000-10-15 19:59:44 PDT
I can check it in if this gets ++.
Comment 45 Joseph Elwell 2000-10-16 11:41:11 PDT
Checkins like these are low risk, and high reward. The reward here for
developers to be listed in the credits is priceless. Netscape couldn't give away
large enough big screen tv's to match the amount of good will and payment
represented by a checkin such as this. And with a zero risk factor it amazes me
that something like this could ever be rejected.
Comment 46 Jason Eager 2000-10-16 19:02:50 PDT
Still waiting for the PDT to either let this in TODAY (RTM++), or explain
EXACTLY how checking in this virtually NO risk patch (NO code) would hurt the
branch in any way, and justify alienating virtually all current (and future)
outside contributors to Netscape in the process (since it shows us exactly how
much you think of us).

If you wait until tomorrow and then say "Well, now we aren't going to allow ANY
bug fixes in except for pull-off-the-wire because we're baking.", then we AREN'T
going to be amused.
Comment 48 Chris Waterson 2000-10-16 20:19:35 PDT
Created attachment 17315 [details] [diff] [review]
proposed fix
Comment 49 Brendan Eich [:brendan] 2000-10-16 20:26:22 PDT
r=brendan@mozilla.org.  Endico and I will work on the CGI idea (to serve the 
right CVS version from gila.mozilla.org).  BenB, if you want to get this file 
when disconnected, please work on offline support, cache file pinning, etc.

/be
Comment 50 Scott Collins 2000-10-16 20:28:09 PDT
sr=scc
Comment 51 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-16 20:35:30 PDT
waterson, brendan, scc, this is what bug 55584 is about, not this one.
Comment 52 Chris Waterson 2000-10-16 20:36:29 PDT
BenB: you solution has proven to be unmaintainable. Changed nsAboutCredits.cpp
to refer to www.mozilla.org
Comment 53 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-16 20:55:04 PDT
> you solution has proven to be unmaintainable.

No way. Some people who go creasy are not the base for measurement.

> Changed nsAboutCredits.cpp to refer to www.mozilla.org

Please back the change out for Mozilla. Thanks.
Comment 54 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-16 20:57:18 PDT
> Some people who go creasy are not the base for measurement.
> Please back the change out for Mozilla. Thanks.

Please disregard this.

I still don't see this bug as being *any* prove for unmainability. For further
discussion, let's go to the other bug or a newsgroup.
Comment 55 Jason Eager 2000-10-16 22:19:48 PDT
As far as I can tell, this change was only landed on the branch. The trunk still
has the (fixed) static list of credits.

Given how the PDT has decided to maintain the netscape branch, keeping a static
list of contributors is unmaintainable in Netscape's case, <dry sarcasm>
Otherwise, the list of contributors would be at least 3 months out of date </dry
sarcasm>.

So let's just leave this fix on the branch.
Comment 56 Jason Eager 2000-10-16 22:22:35 PDT
Ok, I spoke too soon. This change also landed on the trunk.

And I will take my discussion about that to the newsgroups as well.
Comment 57 Ben Bucksch (:BenB) 2000-10-16 22:57:43 PDT
The branch pointing to the webpage is fine with me, largely because I don't mind
not having my name on N6.0.

I do disagree with the change on the trunk. I posted
<news://news.mozilla.org/39EBEA46.F5BC3975@bucksch.org> to .license.
Comment 58 Matthias Versen [:Matti] 2000-12-25 15:14:26 PST
mid-air collision ? / bugzilla cleanup
Reopening (current State: resolved and no resolution
Comment 59 Matthias Versen [:Matti] 2000-12-25 15:14:54 PST
resolved fixed

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.


Privacy Policy