[aur-general] AUR "Jamie" account
A user by the name of "Jamie" on the forum wants an AUR account with the same name: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=81872 The problem is that the account is already taken but whoever owns it has never used it to upload a package or vote. If it were up to me alone, I would try to contact the owner of the account and either request that (s)he give it up if I get a response or simply switch it over otherwise. My reasoning is that it makes more sense to have the same name on the forum and the AUR (and everything else with a separate account) because it makes it easy to know who's who, which has implications for the AUR. What do the other TUs (and interested devs) think? I think this is a rare enough event to not have to worry about a flood of requests to grab matching names on the AUR. Btw, in case you're wondering, Jamie tried to post a message to the list following my suggestion on the forum but it apparently didn't get through so he asked me to do it, hence this message. Regards, Xyne
On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 13:15, Xyne <xyne@archlinux.ca> wrote:
A user by the name of "Jamie" on the forum wants an AUR account with the same name: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=81872
I don't think we should take any action on this without the consent of the account holder. If he's gone and not answering, it's not for us to step in and remove his account. I don't believe it's appropriate and I think that the users need to have confidence that we aren't going to meddle in things like this.
Daenyth Blank wrote:
On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 13:15, Xyne <xyne@archlinux.ca> wrote:
A user by the name of "Jamie" on the forum wants an AUR account with the same name: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=81872
I don't think we should take any action on this without the consent of the account holder. If he's gone and not answering, it's not for us to step in and remove his account. I don't believe it's appropriate and I think that the users need to have confidence that we aren't going to meddle in things like this.
I see the logic of both points of view, but I'll add my two cents anyway. I think that Daenyth is right, but I'd also say that an account that was created a long time ago but has never been used could probably be removed. Hell, on the forums we have accounts created in 2003 with a 0 post count... after six years of inactivity I'd say it's time to move on.
Am Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:41:42 -0500 schrieb Daniel J Griffiths <ghost1227@archlinux.us>:
I see the logic of both points of view, but I'll add my two cents anyway. I think that Daenyth is right, but I'd also say that an account that was created a long time ago but has never been used could probably be removed. Hell, on the forums we have accounts created in 2003 with a 0 post count... after six years of inactivity I'd say it's time to move on.
I don't agree in this. I also have an account on the forums, which I don't need often, because usually I need to report a bug in flyspray or I already find an answer for my problem in the forums. And I don't need to login to search the forums. So you probably don't see any activities for my forums account for a long time. But if I need to post in the forums, then I'd like to use my "old" account. So deleting a forums account due to supposed inactivity is not really nice and shouldn't be done. And I'd be pretty angry, if my accounts would just be deleted without asking me. In case of an AUR account I'd principally say, that the forums "Jamie" has bad luck. I think he should register a different user name on AUR, and, if he wants to use the same user name in AUR and the forums, then he should register this AUR user name in the forums and use that. But in this case of inactivity in AUR one could friendly ask the owner of the AUR account "Jamie" and ask him, if he wants to keep it or if he agrees in giving his account to the forums "Jamie". And only if he agrees this should be done. If he doesn't answer or agree then this account should be untouched. And this should really be an exceptional case. Heiko
Heiko Baums wrote:
Am Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:41:42 -0500 schrieb Daniel J Griffiths <ghost1227@archlinux.us>:
I see the logic of both points of view, but I'll add my two cents anyway. I think that Daenyth is right, but I'd also say that an account that was created a long time ago but has never been used could probably be removed. Hell, on the forums we have accounts created in 2003 with a 0 post count... after six years of inactivity I'd say it's time to move on.
I don't agree in this. I also have an account on the forums, which I don't need often, because usually I need to report a bug in flyspray or I already find an answer for my problem in the forums. And I don't need to login to search the forums. So you probably don't see any activities for my forums account for a long time. But if I need to post in the forums, then I'd like to use my "old" account. So deleting a forums account due to supposed inactivity is not really nice and shouldn't be done. And I'd be pretty angry, if my accounts would just be deleted without asking me.
In case of an AUR account I'd principally say, that the forums "Jamie" has bad luck. I think he should register a different user name on AUR, and, if he wants to use the same user name in AUR and the forums, then he should register this AUR user name in the forums and use that.
But in this case of inactivity in AUR one could friendly ask the owner of the AUR account "Jamie" and ask him, if he wants to keep it or if he agrees in giving his account to the forums "Jamie". And only if he agrees this should be done. If he doesn't answer or agree then this account should be untouched. And this should really be an exceptional case.
Heiko
When I said inactivity I wasn't talking about someone who hadn't posted in a while. I'm talking about accounts that have been active for six years and /never /used.
When I said inactivity I wasn't talking about someone who hadn't posted in a while. I'm talking about accounts that have been active for six years and /never /used.
I generally agree with most of what has been said so far. The only reason that I consider this reasonable is that an AUR account is only used for two things: package management and voting. If a user creates and account but does neither of those then the account servers absolutely no purpose. I have no idea when that account was registered though. It may be very recent or from the prehistoric era before Phrack got hacked. Just to be clear, I would try to contact the owner first, but if the owner never replied after a reasonable amount of time and has never used the account, then I really don't see why it should be left alone. It's just clutter on the AUR as it is now. I also agree that this is a rather exceptional case as I think most users keep the same name for different accounts. On a related note, maybe it would be a good idea to turn on auto-pruning for AUR accounts. If you have never voted or submitted a package, your account gets deleted after 3-6 months. Just a tangential though.
On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 8:50 PM, Xyne <xyne@archlinux.ca> wrote:
On a related note, maybe it would be a good idea to turn on auto-pruning for AUR accounts. If you have never voted or submitted a package, your account gets deleted after 3-6 months. Just a tangential though.
why? are we out of alphabetic combinations? You know what they say...they always come back. What if someone tries arch and comes to the conclusion he/she isn't ready for it. He/she leaves and after some time tries again. It would be a shame coming back and noticing your account is deleted or taken over by someone IMO if Jamie wants to have the AUR username he should just contact the other account holder (if the e-mail is publically available anyway). I don't see any reason to take action, there are enough alphanumeric combinations left. Ronald
why? are we out of alphabetic combinations?
You know what they say...they always come back. What if someone tries arch and comes to the conclusion he/she isn't ready for it. He/she leaves and after some time tries again. It would be a shame coming back and noticing your account is deleted or taken over by someone
IMO if Jamie wants to have the AUR username he should just contact the other account holder (if the e-mail is publically available anyway). I don't see any reason to take action, there are enough alphanumeric combinations left.
Ronald
Hmmm. I was about to say that I still don't agree because the AUR account is only for uploading & maintaing packages and voting, but I just realized that I hadn't taken comments into account. The user may have actually posted some comments. I still maintain that there is no point in keeping accounts that have never been used for anything. It's clutter in the database and on the disk. It's like drawing a line in the sand on a beach and then leaving without ever coming back. If someone else wants that spot, I don't think it should be permanently off-limits because someone might show up months or years later and say "hey, that's my spot". Anyway, with the realization about comments and the overall direction of this discussion, I think think I have my answer. I'll let forum-Jamie know. Thanks
On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 2:20 PM, Xyne <xyne@archlinux.ca> wrote:
IMO if Jamie wants to have the AUR username he should just contact the other account holder (if the e-mail is publically available anyway). I don't see any reason to take action, there are enough alphanumeric combinations left.
Ronald
Hmmm. I was about to say that I still don't agree because the AUR account is only for uploading & maintaing packages and voting, but I just realized that I hadn't taken comments into account. The user may have actually posted some comments.
I still maintain that there is no point in keeping accounts that have never been used for anything. It's clutter in the database and on the disk. It's like drawing a line in the sand on a beach and then leaving without ever coming back. If someone else wants that spot, I don't think it should be permanently off-limits because someone might show up months or years later and say "hey, that's my spot".
Anyway, with the realization about comments and the overall direction of this discussion, I think think I have my answer. I'll let forum-Jamie know.
My two cents worth say that if another user wants the spot which was never used nor were any comments posted, then it ought to be OK to release to another person that does want it. Of course, this may generate extra administration, but if we have volunteers that want to do it, then I don't see why not. Farhan
On Tue 13 Oct 2009 20:20 +0200, Xyne wrote:
why? are we out of alphabetic combinations?
You know what they say...they always come back. What if someone tries arch and comes to the conclusion he/she isn't ready for it. He/she leaves and after some time tries again. It would be a shame coming back and noticing your account is deleted or taken over by someone
IMO if Jamie wants to have the AUR username he should just contact the other account holder (if the e-mail is publically available anyway). I don't see any reason to take action, there are enough alphanumeric combinations left.
Hmmm. I was about to say that I still don't agree because the AUR account is only for uploading & maintaing packages and voting, but I just realized that I hadn't taken comments into account. The user may have actually posted some comments.
I still maintain that there is no point in keeping accounts that have never been used for anything. It's clutter in the database and on the disk. It's like drawing a line in the sand on a beach and then leaving without ever coming back. If someone else wants that spot, I don't think it should be permanently off-limits because someone might show up months or years later and say "hey, that's my spot".
Anyway, with the realization about comments and the overall direction of this discussion, I think think I have my answer. I'll let forum-Jamie know.
I don't even know why this needs discussion. No one should expect a username like 'Jamie' or 'Bill', for instance, to be available on any public site. Those names are just too common. The smart user should choose something truly unique. I wouldn't want to set any precedent by giving certain users special treatment here. AUR accounts can be renamed in the account settings, so forum-Jamie is able to choose a new unique name and not have to orphan and re-adopt his or her packages.
Xyne <xyne@archlinux.org> wrote:
A user by the name of "Jamie" on the forum wants an AUR account with the same name: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=81872
The problem is that the account is already taken but whoever owns it has never used it to upload a package or vote.
Has he ever left any comments? Is there a way to make such a determination? This is the third possible use of an AUR account. You can't make anonymous comments on AUR packages. In any case, contacting the owner seems like a good first step. Peace, -- Chris
participants (8)
-
Chris Brannon
-
Daenyth Blank
-
Daniel J Griffiths
-
Farhan Yousaf
-
Heiko Baums
-
Loui Chang
-
Ronald van Haren
-
Xyne