[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: Ethics Question

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Sun, Aug 29, 2004 at 10:37:44AM -0500, Stephen Davidson wrote:
> dmyhand610 wrote:
> 
> >I am a High School teacher and I teach Web building among other 
> >subjects, and one of my duties is to maintain the High School 
> >Website.  Prominently displayed on the Site is the name of my 
> >predecessor, and the fact that she created the site.  [...]
> >I am still 
> >being urged to remove her name, and by more people.  Should I do this 
> >or stick to my ethical guns (Which is what I am still convinced is 
> >right to do)?  Thanks, Dennis
> >
> Created by: Other person
> Maintained by: You.

Indeed, you could probably remove the "created by" attribution altogether,
and just say "maintained by: <address>" and leave it at that.  

But I understand and approve of your desire to give credit where credit
is due.  Instead of having the creator's name "prominently displayed" on
the site, perhaps you could move authorship/site credits such as
this to a separate page?  This also gives more options for giving credit
to others as they make contributions to the site, while recognizing the
efforts of the original creator.

Note that moving the creator/credits info to another page doesn't mean
that the maintainer's (your) contact info should not be readily available 
and prominent on the site--the usual purpose of having such info visible 
on a site is to provide readers with a point of contact if they have
questions or problems with the site, as opposed to giving credit to the
site's creators.

FWIW.

Pm
--------------
Patrick R. Michaud, RHCE #808002519807115
Web:   http://www.pmichaud.com
Email: pmichaud at pobox.com