this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2025
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Programming

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Is there an equivalent to the "Alan Smithee" pseudonym for a developer? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 weeks ago by fargeol@lemmy.world to c/programming@programming.dev
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In the movie industry, directors sometimes sign their as "Alan Smithee" to indicate they don't recognize the movie as their own work.
This can happen for various reasons, one well known example is David Lynch for Dune (1984) who didn't want his name associated with the movie since he didn't have the final cut.

Is there an equivalent for the software industry to indicate one wants to distance themself from a commit or a project they don't approve?

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[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 7 points 2 weeks ago

Is there an equivalent for the software industry to indicate one wants to distance themself from a commit or a project they don't approve?

Other strategies might be better suited. For example, say you work on automobile steering software and management is cutting so much corners that things become unsafe. In that case, it might be best to write a mail to the legal department and naively ask some questions about safety and technical concerns. Then print it and take it home.

In general, if you can't ethically agree to a commit in open source software, it should be possible to withdraw that contribution.

There might be other cases where autorship or contribution to some software might expose you to discrimination. In that case, I think it is perfectly ok to work anonymously.