When do you put your name on stuff?

When all of these apply

• I wrote it
• I'm proud of what I wrote or want people to know how to contact me
• It is more than a few lines
• The code is of significant value to the project

If you patch a module do you add your name to the patch?

No, never. I think the module maintainer should give the patcher credit, but if and where they do so is up to them. Unless I am going to maintain the patched code myself (or want to be available to answer questions about it if it is complex), I think no author should be named in code.

Sometimes there's an AUTHORS file, an ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS heading in the POD, a nice line in the Changes file or nothing at all. I dislike when the maintainer doesn't credit me for my work, but it is not up to me to decide.

When you rewrite the code of an earlier author, do you give them credit for the original work?

Yes.

If its a total rewrite do you mention the original still?

Only if it still does the same thing. For example, a skinny (protocol used by older Cisco IP phones) proxy based on an existing port forwarding script would mention the original author somewhere. But not if it was rewriten totally, because a skinny proxy doesn't just forward ports.

Now if the original was a skinny proxy too, even after a total rewrite I would feel that the original author should be given credit.

still? Under what circumstances is it ok to remove accredation?

When it is in the wrong place or otherwise disturbing. Or: always, if it is your project. It is of course always a good idea to tell people what you're doing and explain why.

Are these rules different depending on where you are working?

Yes. I never put my name on changes when they were contributed by a versioning system. People can check the logs if they want to know who to contact for asking questions about it.