On Thu, 2010-07-08 at 16:59 +0900, Satoru Matsumoto wrote:
(2010/07/08 9:18), Bryen M. Yunashko wrote:
Our current approved membership is based on merit. If you contribute substantially in one form or another, you can become a member. It is a form of appreciation, and this group of people are contributors. (Perhaps rename openSUSE Member as openSUSE Contributor?)
IMHO, we will make the same mistake again if we use the word 'Contributor' as a name for 'specifically distinguished contributors who have brought a continued and substantial contribution to the openSUSE project'.
I appreciate the comments you've made and your points are very valid in this email. No opposition from me. But the point of my injection into this thread was to get us to stop focusing on "NAME" and focus on "FUNCTION". Let's debate the functionality of the group(s) as I have proposed. Then after we get that figured out, then a naming convention will fall in naturally. I refer to my mother's most favorite quote that I often have repeated to others.... "Form must always follow function." Bryen
One of the biggest reason why 'member' is not a good name for such contributors is, the word 'member' is a general noun and used in various contexts.
Refer to 'openSUSE:Community' page, for example. http://wiki.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Community
There's a mention: "... Some people think that anybody using openSUSE is a *member* of the community. Others think that being a *member* requires some sort of involvement: subscription to a mail list, registration as wiki editor through the Novell login, helper in the forums, regular use of an openSUSE IRC or other active involvement. In fact, if you think you are a *member*, want to be a *member*, ask if you are a *member*, then you probably are one :-)."
This mention is starkly inconsistent with our existing membership.
The word 'contributor' also is a general noun and used in various contexts in our community as 'person who contribute to openSUSE (or, any other upstream projects)'.
Everyone who contributes to openSUSE is a 'contributor', whether (s)he is applied or not. Renaming 'Member' to 'Contributor' will just make another problem - there will be 2 kind of contributors, contributors who are applied by Board and who are not yet applied.
I'm sorry I can't propose an alternative idea because I'm not a native English speaker, but I hope someone else will propose better names.
Best,
-- _/_/ Satoru Matsumoto - openSUSE Member - Japan _/_/ _/_/ Marketing/Weekly News/openFATE Screening Team _/_/ _/_/ mail: helios_reds_at_gmx.net / irc: HeliosReds _/_/ _/_/ http://blog.zaq.ne.jp/opensuse/ _/_/
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