Re: Endorsing version 1.0 of the GNU Social Contract

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

       This initiative is not supported by Richard Stallman.

That is quite false, you're free to do any kind of initiatives you
wish, so it is quite the opposite.  What the GNU project won't do is
to require volunteers to agree to any kind of document similar to
this.

So why not add the offical stance of the GNU project, verbatim,
instead of misrepresenting the GNU project in this manner?


    Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2020 18:26:51 -0500
    From: "Richard Stallman (Chief GNUisance)" <rms@gnu.org>
    To: rms@gnu.org
    Subject: What's GNU -- and what's not
    
    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)