[aur-general] TU application - Kyle Keen

[keenerd]

On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 4:57 PM, Ray Rashif <schiv at archlinux.org> wrote:
> You shouldn't let other issues hinder your application. Reconsider
> withdrawing, because it would disappoint your sponsor. You were asked
> a very simple question:
>
> "Considering this and the still-ongoing discussion about the AUR guidelines, do
> you agree that it would be prudent to be more patient in the future and wait
> until we've come to a conclusion before going ahead with something like this
> again?"

That depends.

Here are three examples were it is pretty cut and dry: Using the good
name of the TUs, using magic tu.php powers, or using information only
TUs have access to.  Before going anywhere near that stuff I'd get
permission in triplicate.  In other words, great responsibilities are
attached to even the least of *TU* resources.

However, an AUR scanning/reporting bot could be made and operated by
any *non-TU* in less than two hundred lines of any scripting language.

I'll agree the bot was poorly executed.  The trigger thresholds were
initially set a bit too low.  Less than 1/3 through the scan I greatly
increased the triggers (ignore improper nesting, ignore less than four
PNGs/GIFs/JPGs).

To act as if this is a black and white issue draws a parallel with a
very unethical Non-Compete agreement:  "While you are a programmer for
FOO Corp, you are not allowed to write/release software outside of
work."  I have never and would never take employment with such a
company.  (Conversely, I have never worked on FOSS stuff for fun while
on the clock.)  What rights, that we have as ordinary users, are given
up even outside of the TU sphere?

Retracting my withdrawal would be cheating.  I will wait at least
three months, as a fair interpretation of the Bylaws requires.

By the way, this ML has very strict and undocumented rules regarding
attachments.  I do all sorts of work to get my charts and graphs the
under the 100KB limit, only to find that all PNGs are scrubbed out.
The irony.  Check my site later for those.

-Kyle
http://kmkeen.com