Re: A GNU “social contract”?

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   > You send a patch, you contribute documentation, you work on Savannah,
   > you don't sign or agree to anything to become a member of the GNU
   > project.     

   That wholy depends on what you call a "member". I indeed don't consider
   that you'd have to sign or agree on anything (except copyright things)
   to be able to send patches, contribute documentations, work on
   Savannah, etc.  But you'd have to agree on the GNU goals if you are
   to take responsibilities in the GNU project, such as being maintainer
   of a package (as in: responsible for the package, and not only a
   contributor).

Recall, this text says "All current GNU Project members have agreed to
uphold these values." -- be it the idea of a free operating system,
the notion of free software, or anything in the document.

The error here is that the confusing between agreeing to the goal and
philosophy of the project, and just following/applying the policies of
the GNU project.

One does not need to agree with anything, or uphold anything, to
follow a policy.  This has always been the case when you become a GNU
maintainer, all you need to do is to follow or apply either what we
have written down, or if something is requested by Chief GNUisance,
not uphold or fight for the values of the GNU project, or even agree
with anything the GNU project and free software stands for.