As most of you are probably aware, Dave drafted the document "Maintainer's Terms and Conditions of Use" which has to be signed by maintainers of EDIT scratchpads. By email Dave and I discussed whether EDIT should also offer a document about "Contributor's Terms and Conditions of Use. As this is a general WP6 topic, we want to open this discussion to all.
I suggested to offer maintainers a separate, different T&C document, which is tailored for the relationship between maintainer and contributor, and which would be optional for the maintainer to use.
Dave's response was that if the maintainer wants one, they should put one together. He does not intend to draft a standard form as a resource for maintainers. This is very much about communities forming their own identities and rules of engagement.
My responsonse was that I think this is different from the community forming and rules of engagement because the T&C is a legal document. EDIT gives me the responsibility for all activity on my site, especially that all content will be "legal, decent and truthful" and EDIT gives me responsibility for any liabilities, fines or penalities. Off course I expect my contributors to only publish legal, decent and truthful data. But what if not and I didn't detect it? I am in the same position concerning my contributors as EDIT is concerning me and off course I want the same protection. So in my opinion we (EDIT) should draft a standard form as resource for maintainers.
Dave's response was: The use of T&C documents is quasi-legal and serves really to ensure that people who take on the responsibility are aware of it. I regard it as community building because it is up to the community how formal they need to make this and what they regard as "legal, decent and truthful". The maintainer has to decide how to handle this. What most of us do is to look at the T&C documents on comparable sites and modify one of those. If I draft something and you use it, how much responsibility is mine if things were to to wrong? Better that you draft it and use it.
So should we offer a standard T&C for contributors?
As most of you are probably aware, Dave drafted the document "Maintainer's Terms and Conditions of Use" which has to be signed by maintainers of EDIT scratchpads. By email Dave and I discussed whether EDIT should also offer a document about "Contributor's Terms and Conditions of Use. As this is a general WP6 topic, we want to open this discussion to all.
I suggested to offer maintainers a separate, different T&C document, which is tailored for the relationship between maintainer and contributor, and which would be optional for the maintainer to use.
Dave's response was that if the maintainer wants one, they should put one together. He does not intend to draft a standard form as a resource for maintainers. This is very much about communities forming their own identities and rules of engagement.
My responsonse was that I think this is different from the community forming and rules of engagement because the T&C is a legal document. EDIT gives me the responsibility for all activity on my site, especially that all content will be "legal, decent and truthful" and EDIT gives me responsibility for any liabilities, fines or penalities. Off course I expect my contributors to only publish legal, decent and truthful data. But what if not and I didn't detect it? I am in the same position concerning my contributors as EDIT is concerning me and off course I want the same protection. So in my opinion we (EDIT) should draft a standard form as resource for maintainers.
Dave's response was: The use of T&C documents is quasi-legal and serves really to ensure that people who take on the responsibility are aware of it. I regard it as community building because it is up to the community how formal they need to make this and what they regard as "legal, decent and truthful". The maintainer has to decide how to handle this. What most of us do is to look at the T&C documents on comparable sites and modify one of those. If I draft something and you use it, how much responsibility is mine if things were to to wrong? Better that you draft it and use it.
So should we offer a standard T&C for contributors?