add contribution guidelines and non-code-of-conduct

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2024-01-23 17:59:33 +01:00
committed by T.v.Dein
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commit a79a28f4a1
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# No Code of Conduct
*TL;DR:* This project does **NOT** have a so called Code of Conduct,
nor will it ever have one.
## The Rant
The reasons are somewhat complicated and I'll try my best to document
them here.
Ethical codes or rules come along like laws. But how is ethical or
moral behavior defined? And who defines which behavior is ethical and
which is not? Certainly not me.
Unless you live in a dictatorship (and more than half of the
population on planet earth do as of this writing), laws come into
existence by democratic procedures. Laws cover almost every aspect of
live in a society. Laws allow and forbid behavior and laws sanction
infringements.
A software project like this one on the other hand is not a society.
There are not enough people involved to form democratic
structures. And there will always be a minority of users who have the
right to commit or reject code. How could any maintainer of a software
project dare to decree rules upon others? Actually, am I, the current
maintainer of this very project authorized to do so?
I think the anser to this question clearly is NO.
The issue is being complicated by the fact, that open source
development these days happens on a planetary scale. And this planet
houses hundreds if not thousands of different cultures, philosophies,
ideologies and worldviews. The answer to many ethical questions will
in most cases be vague and nebulous.
Ones joke will always be another ones insult.
Then there is the problem of language. I myself am not an english
native, but I publish everyting using the english language. I am able
to communicate with most people in the open source community because
of that. But I am certainly not able to understand everything and
everyone. There might be nuances to a sentence I don't sense, there
might be sarcastic connotations I don't understand or references to
historical figures, events or traditions I don't know and never have
heard of.
Judging over other peoples online behavior looks like a titanic task
to me. It is just not my job to judge others, I am not legitimized or
authorized to do so and I am not interested in this kind of business.
Another huge problem with ethical rules is that you need to outline
and enforce sanctions on those who violate the rules. But since I am
not an elected authority how would I be able to do this? I don't
know. And what happens if someone complains about myself? Shall I
remove myself from my own project? Come on!
Last but not least there's the law. So, let's say someone in india
writes something insulting to some other developer in an issue. Of
course german law does not apply to indian people. Moreover, the
insult might actually not be an insult in india. In the end, nothing
would happen. Under normal circumstances, maintainers would
eventually delete the posting, ban the user or remove push privileges
etc.
But then, is there a way for the offending user to defend himself? Of
course not, since neither indian or german law alone applies. I cannot
go to a german court and sue the guy and he cannot do the same in
india. Or - we possibly could but the judges in both countries would
just laugh and close the case.
That being said, I don't have the power nor the tools, nor the
authority to enforce serious sanctions of any meaningful kind against
others. Therefore I cannot outline any rules whatsoever.
And let's not even start talking about these undemocratic "comitees"
many projects are forming to circumvent this problem. Some projects
even include external entities like a lawyer or some bureaucrat
somewhere just to have the ability to complain against a comitee
member. What a mess!
## So, what are the ethical rules within this project then?
Well, there are none.
This project is about code, not society. It doesn't matter where you
come from, how you look, how you think, what you believe, who your
friends are, whay you said or did sometime in the past. I don't even
care if you are a human being. You are an alien so bored that you need
to submit code on github? Fine with me. You're a convicted criminal? I
don't give a shit!
**The only thing I am interested here is Code and only Code.**
So if anyhing happens here I don't like or I am obliged by (german!)
law to act on, I will decide on a case to case basis what to do. And
unfortunately, since this is the nature of a github project, you
cannot complain, object or protest. I am very sorry!
If you will, let's at least outline these:
- Please - just please - behave towards others as you'd expect others
to behave towards yourself.
- Don't judge others for any reason.
- Only judge the code.
But these are not rules, only a friendly appeal to you as a developer
and user.
Thanks a lot!

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## Project Goals
The goal of this project is to build a small tool which helps in
maintaining backups of the german ad site kleinanzeigen.de. It should
be small, fast and easy to understand.
There will be no GUI, no web interface, no public API of some sort, no
builtin interpreter.
The programming language used for this project will always be
[GOLANG](https://go.dev/) with the exception of the documentation
([Perl POD](https://perldoc.perl.org/perlpod)) and the Makefile.
# Contributing
You can contribute to this project in various ways:
## Open an issue
If you encounter a problem or don't understand how the program works
or if you think the documentation is unclear, please don't hesitate to
open an issue.
Please add as much information about the case as possible, such as:
- Your environment (operating system etc)
- kleingebaeck version (`kleingebaeck --version`)
- Commandline used. Please replace sensitive information with mock data!
- Repeat the command with debugging enabled (`-d` flag)
- Actual program output, Please replace sensitive information with mock data!
- Expected program output.
- Error message - if any.
Be aware that I am working on this (and some others) project in my
spare time which is scarce. Therefore please don't expect me to
respond to your query within hours or even days. Be patient, but I
WILL respond.
## Pull Requests
Code and documentation help is always much appreciated! Please follow
thes guidelines to successfully contribute:
- Every pull request shall be based on latest `development`
branch. `main` is only used for releases.
- Execute the unit tests before committing: `make test`. There shall
be no errors.
- Strive to be backwards compatible so that users who are already
using the program don't have to change their habits - unless it is
really neccessary.
- Try to add a unit test for your fix, addition or modification.
- Don't ever change existing unit tests!
- Add a meaningful and comprehensive rationale about your contribution:
- Why do you think it might be useful for others?
- What did you actually change or add?
- Is there an open issue which this PR fixes and if so, please link
to that issue.
- [Re-]format your code with `gofmt -s`.
- Avoid unneccesary dependencies, especially for very small functions.
- **If** a new dependency is being added, it must be compatible with
our [license agreement](LICENSE).
- You need to accept that the code or documentation you contribute
will be redistributed under the terms of said license agreement. If
your contribution is considerably large or if you contribute
regularly, then feel free to add your name (and if you want your
email address) to the *AUTHORS* section of the
[manpage](kleingebaeck.pod).
- Adhere to the above mentioned project goals.
- If you are unsure if your addition or change will be accepted,
better ask before starting coding. Open an issue about your proposal
and let's discuss it! That way we avoid doing unnessesary work on
both sides.
Each pull request will be carefully reviewed and if it is a useful
addition it will be accepted. However, please be prepared that
sometimes a PR will be rejected. The reasons may vary and will be
documented. Perhaps the above guidelines are not matched, or the
addition seems to be not so useful from my perspective, maybe there
are too much changes or there might be changes I don't even
understand.
But whatever happens: your contribution is always welcome!