[tor-bugs] #32558 [Internal Services/Tor Sysadmin Team]: clarify what happens to email when we retire a user

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#32558: clarify what happens to email when we retire a user
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 Reporter:  anarcat                              |          Owner:  tpa
     Type:  task                                 |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                               |      Milestone:
Component:  Internal Services/Tor Sysadmin Team  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                                       |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:  #32519                               |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                       |        Sponsor:
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Changes (by gk):

 * cc: gk (added)


Comment:

 Replying to [comment:1 arma]:
 >

 [snip]

 > Option one, we decide our policy is that soon after you stop being an
 employee or stop being a core contributor, by default your email address
 goes away. I think this would be a poor choice. It would mean that folks
 who take a break from working on Tor will see a disruption in their
 contact address -- the email address they used, and likely also the one
 they used in their git commits -- and they will feel less wanted when
 considering whether to return.

 Yes, We really should avoid that scenario if possible. From a project's
 perspective it's important to realize that contributors that come to us
 and want to work with us up to the point that they get a tpo address are a
 very scarce resource (if you don't believe me just look at, say, the last
 couple of years and count how many new people we got during that time).
 Thus, I would not want to alienate any of them with that option.

 > Option two, when we are adding a new email forward, we decide whether
 it's in the "company" or "hacker" category, and we make it clear to the
 person getting it. If it's in the company category, then they know that it
 will go away after they leave, possibly get redirected, and all the things
 that company people expect to happen to their email addresses. If it's the
 hacker category, we'll plan by default to leave it in place unless special
 circumstances make us need to do something else. I think this approach
 would be a fine choice. There are some details still to be worked out,
 like how to handle the existing addresses (I think we could go through and
 categorize them), and how to recognize when a person has shifted category,
 but I think they're solvable.
 >
 > Option three is like option two except the division is "are they a core
 contributor or not". That is, in this policy, if you have been voted in as
 a core contributor, you are like the "hacker" category above. Whereas if
 you have an email address but you didn't get it by being voted in as a
 core contributor, then you're like the "company" category above. I'd be
 fine with this approach too. In many ways it's cleaner than option two.

 I think option three is a good idea to explore, in particular as it
 incorporates the core contributor idea, which we worked hard to establish,
 as the central category for our community part.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/32558#comment:2>
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The Tor Project: anonymity online