On 9/24/21 9:03 AM, TJ wrote:
I'm having trouble seeing where tzdb is being unfair to anyone at all under this definition. Some volunteer added historical zones for X, Y, Z.
That volunteer was me.
Other volunteers can add zones for places that they are interested in. Everyone has equal opportunity to do so.
We can't have a free-for-all in which anyone can add a Zone for (say) Kosciusko County, Indiana to the primary database on the grounds that it differed from Indianapolis back in 1906. Even covering Indiana alone would require hundreds of Zones, the data would be practically impossible to verify, and the overall utility to end users would be negative (due to the resulting complication and confusion).
As far as I can see right now, this change seems more unfair to people who have done the work to investigate and provide the data for certain zones.
The equity issues are not about tzdb contributors. They're about whether tzdb is fair (and appears to be fair) to users. And even if one is truly worried about contributors, I contributed the vast majority of Zones. Tim Parenti has also contributed recently. We don't at all mind having our contributions be in 'backzone' rather than in some other file. I expect future contributors will be similar.
could someone point me to a the relevant policy change document / rationale?
The current guidelines are here: https://data.iana.org/time-zones/theory.html#naming