From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on dcvr.yhbt.net X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-ASN: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.0 required=3.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,BAYES_00 shortcircuit=no autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from localhost (dcvr.yhbt.net [127.0.0.1]) by dcvr.yhbt.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6799B1F5AD for ; Tue, 7 Apr 2020 09:37:20 +0000 (UTC) From: Eric Wong To: meta@public-inbox.org Subject: [RFC] doc: start reproducibility document Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 04:37:20 -0500 Message-Id: <20200407093720.31854-1-e@yhbt.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit List-Id: Not new ideas, just gathering thoughts. --- Documentation/reproducibility.txt | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 29 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/reproducibility.txt diff --git a/Documentation/reproducibility.txt b/Documentation/reproducibility.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4e56ada4 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/reproducibility.txt @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +reproducibility => forkability +------------------------------ + +The ability to fork a project is a checks and balances +system for free software projects. Reproducibility is key +to forkability since every mirror is potential fork. + +git makes the code history of projects fully reproducible. +public-inbox uses git to make the email history of projects +reproducible. + +Keeping all communications as email ensures the full history +of the entire project can be mirrored by anyone with the +resources to do so. Compact, low-complexity data requires +less resources to mirror, so sticking with plain-text +ensures more parties can mirror and potentially fork the +project with all its data. + +Any private or irreproducible data is a barrier to forking. +These include mailing list subscriber information and +non-federated user identities. The "pull" subscriber model +of NNTP and Atom feeds combined with open-to-all posting +means there's no need for private data. + +If these things make power hungry project leaders and admins +uncomfortable, good. That was the point. It's how checks +and balances ought to work. + +Comments, corrections, etc welcome: meta@public-inbox.org