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From: Mikeal Rogers <mikeal.rogers@gmail.com>
To: dev@couchdb.apache.org
In-Reply-To: <399A2534-FBBB-4D0E-A7C9-A04AB0E175BA@apache.org>
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Subject: Re: Uneasiness with use of github for experimentation
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 11:12:20 -0700
References: <399A2534-FBBB-4D0E-A7C9-A04AB0E175BA@apache.org>

A CLA is required for any contribution, even patches. An SVN  
repository doesn't inherently fix this as patches can still be sent to  
committers over email and then checked in. While it's true git  
encourages more distributed workflows it's still the responsibility of  
committers to make sure all contributions are contributed under a CLA  
whether they come through svn, git or osmosis.

I'm skeptical that an apache lab repository would really be "under the  
oversight" of anybody since few would be watching it outside of those  
contributing to it which I assume are the same people currently  
working in github.

Github does have he advantage of allowing *other* people to use this  
code easily and modify it for their own uses before it's made it in to  
the main line repository, even if those contributions don't make it  
back upstream because of CLA issues they are still providing some  
level of testing and stability checking over the work.

-Mikeal

On Aug 6, 2009, at August 6, 20095:24 AM, Curt Arnold wrote:

> While I'm bringing up contentious issues, use of github for a  
> sandbox for developing significant modifications to CouchDB makes me  
> uneasy.  If I start something on github and accept contributions and  
> ideas from other uses, I can't represent the eventual patch as my  
> original work (as required by the CLA).  Also, it reduces the  
> visibility (barring an explicit opt-in) of the development from the  
> radar of the PMC and community.  Other ASF projects have created  
> "sandboxes" in their SVN for experimental work and the threshold for  
> commit access to the sandbox could be lower than the trunk (still  
> would require CLA and an Apache account).  Any Apache committer  
> could use Apache Labs, but since that is not developed with the  
> oversight of the community that still needs a pass through the  
> Incubator.  Having a sandbox or labs branch in the CouchDB SVN would  
> provide a location for non-trunk development that is still under the  
> oversight of the PMC and community.