Ubuntu – How to sign the Ubuntu Code of Conduct

1. Ask in the right place.

   One thing that really annoys developers is people asking things in the wrong place. This applies to all sorts of communications and finding out the right way for a particular project does take some investigative work.

   Start with the project documentation. Most large projects have a section about bugs and these tend to hint at where the best place is for certain types of bug. If the project is smaller or more informal, direct communication (email or chat/IRC) isn't a bad idea.

   If the developer does get annoyed with you for sending direct emails and you've looked for alternatives, it's sort of their fault for not making it clear.

   In our (Ubuntu's) context, Launchpad for bugs, Brainstorm for wider feature requests. In a lot of cases you want to swim upstream to where the project lives though. If you can get something fixed or added upstream, them you can talk to the Ubuntu maintainers about getting the patch or update pulled into Ubuntu.

2. Check that there isn't an existing request.

   We close a lot of duplicates here and I know Launchpad does too. Duplicates waste people's time because they have to go through the triage process. If you can find an existing thread about something, go there.

   Most trackers have a "subscribe" feature so you can stay up to date. If the progress looks stalled, I don't think too many people would mind a "What's the progress?/Can I do anything to help?"-style poke.

3. Be polite. Be thorough. Be helpful.

   We are almost never owed anything by an open source developer (except in the case where you hire them outright) so just remember that they're people with lives and jobs. Your requests should be clear, courteous and complete to avoid wasting time going through a waterfall of need-more-info/incomplete requests.

   Regardless of your ability, always find out if there's anything you can do to help a situation. Even if you can't help directly if you can tease out what needs to happen from the developer, other people can help. If you know people who could do certain elements, you could introduce them to the thread and ask if they fancy a crack at helping you.

4. If you can, think about donating, sponsoring or hiring.

   Yeah I think I'm suggesting bribery. If you really need a feature to the point where not having it costs you money (directly or through wasted time), I don't think it's unfair to want to directly sponsor an improvement.

   A lot of projects don't like cash-for-bug payments but some developers may be open to it. They are people and people (unfortunately) need money. I have hired a small project's main developer for a day to improve something that was commercially very important to me but was very low-level on the scale of the project.

   If you can't get anybody in the project to help there are always freelance sites where people code for cash. I see no reason you couldn't hire somebody to work on your bug, pushing patches to the bug tracker for review. Just make it clear that they need to work to the guidelines set out in the project and explicitly state how their work will be licensed.

   This isn't really a very sustainable way of doing things but it is a way of giving back that might directly help you. It's worth a look if you're ever desperate.

this answer has now been merged into the community accepted answer

None of the wider community stuff requires you to use your real name. Launchpad and Membership both allow aliases and handles (for example, I'm Oli here, Oli on IRC, Oli on Launchpad and Oli as an Ubuntu member).

The only instance where I've seen a real name policy is a reference to the Launchpad Beta Testers team requiring real names, in a discussion on the Ubuntu Women mailing list in 2007.

In reality though, this policy seems to have changed because the current members list shows plenty of people who are either using contracted forms of their names or handles. Edit: I've found that they officially retracted this policy in 2008:

For a while now, we've required that Launchpad beta team members use
their real names. As of today, you can join the beta team whether or
not you use your real name as your Launchpad display name.

Instead, we'd like to encourage you to use your real name but it's up to you.

Although most people joining the beta team have been happy to use
their real name, you'll probably have seen discussions on this list
where people have given good reasons for not wanting to use their real
names. The last thing we want to do is discourage you from helping us
beta test new features!

I'd like to explain, though, why we prefer people to use real names.
We really value the feedback you give us when you beta test a new
feature. One reason for preferring real names is that we feel a real
name shows a greater readiness to take the beta team seriously.
However, we know that this doesn't hold for everyone: for example,
many people have a strong reputation built around a pseudonym.

So, if you've held off joining the beta team because you didn't want
to use your real name, please go ahead and join!

However for legal documents (like the Canonical Contributor License Agreement) a real name is probably demanded. Contracts are usually still binding regardless of the given name (if you can link it to a person with enough proof) but it makes the whole thing a lot more floppy for both sides.

But if you're just talking about the CCLA and you're afraid that giving your real name is an issue, talk to Canonical and they'll let you know what they require and what they do with that information. As far as I know there is no public list of people who have agreed to the CCLA (and there's no clause for this in Canonical's privacy policy) so if your name is leaked online from signing the document, Canonical have done something bad.

But I'm not a lawyer so if this really matters talk to Canonical and if that doesn't help, talk to a lawyer.

--- information about GPG ---

• Adding an OpenPGP key to Launchpad.
• Signing the Ubuntu Code of Conduct.
• Becoming an Ubuntu member.

The above items require the use of a GPG Key currently, but there is no requirement that your GPG Key be signed. If you want to have your GPG Key signed you will have to use your real name because without that there is no proper way to identify you using official government photo identification as required.