Re: non-gnu elpa issue tracking

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > 1) License disclosure: The summaries indicate that RMS is open to having
  >    the repository host packages bearing *any* free license,

Actually no.  The rules, in README.org, say the license has to be
compatible with GPL 3-or-later, which is the licensing of GNU Emacs
itself.

                                                                but there
  >    may be users who are pickier, so a package's license should be
  >    disclosed prominently on the listing page and the package detail
  >    page;

That seems like a good idea.

  > 2) The acceptance or candidacy process for each package should be
  >    documented in some discrete method.

Whether to have a certain package in NonGNU ELPA could be a touchy
question, in some borderline cases.  Stating the reasons could perhaps
hurt feelings, or lead to arguments.  So it is best not to do that.
We will add a package or we won't.

If you know about a package we don't add, you will be able to find it
(without our help).

  > 3) After a package is initially accepted to the repository, the
  >    summaries of Richard Stallman's presentation indicate that subsequent
  >    commits or releases may be rejected or modified. That record should
  >    also be documented.

It could be a good idea to document the reasons for decisions like these.
Future maintainers will need to understand this.

I don't think we should make a commitment to publish this without exception,
but usually there will be no reason not to.

  > 4) There's no link on the repository page[1] to the software being used
  >    to generate it, and the forge at which it is being developed. 

It would be fine to add that info.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)