Re: A GNU “social contract”?

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   > What GNU maintainers agree to is very small, it is only to follow the
   > policies that we have.  They don't need to go beyond that, which is
   > what "uphold" would imply.

   Exactly, that’s the change we’re proposing: members of the project
   (maintainers and contributors alike who want to formalize their
   affiliation with the project) would “sign” the social contract, meaning
   that they commit to upholding the values defined therein.

GNU maintainers already "sign" something akin to this when they become
maintainers.

   As you note, this would be “stronger” than the current situation where
   maintainers are not expected do be willing to defend the project’s
   values.

They shouldn't be required to defend the GNU projects values, we
welcome everyone.  And that is on purpose.