Re: What's GNU -- and what's not

[Mark Wielaard]

Hi Frederico,

On Sun, Feb 09, 2020 at 01:48:28AM +0200, Federico Leva (Nemo) wrote:
> I'd like to stress a passage which made me think quite a bit:
> 
> > We have never
> > pressed contributors to endorse the GNU Project philosophy, or any
> > other philosophical views, because people are welcome to contribute to
> > GNU regardless of their views.
> > 
> > To change that -- to impose such requirements -- would be radical,
> > gratuitous, and divisive,
> 
> What holds the project together is indeed something else. One can debate
> what qualifies as "views" and whether radical changes are necessary, but
> personally I appreciate being reminded to be careful about this point.
> 
> I've tried to think of analogues outside the usual communities we usually
> have in mind. In my home town there is a refectory run by Franciscans: I may
> be mistaken, but if you volunteer there you're not even asked whether you're
> a Catholic, let alone asked to join functions if you don't want. I
> understand one may consider that a more menial task, less likely to be
> influenced by philosophical thoughts than what one might code in their
> software, but it's just a comparison, not a model.

It is a nice comparison. This is what the GNU Social Contract tries to
capture with "The GNU Project welcomes contributions from all and
everyone". Even from people not endorsing all views of the GNU
project. As long as they respect our policies of course. It would be
good to have that added in a more explicit way. Others have also
suggested to add an explanation like that.

Thanks,

Mark