[molecule]

"You are free to distribute this book to anyone you want, so long as... it is not altered..."

That doesn't seem consistent w/ the intended usage patterns of git and github, e.g. github's 'Fork' button is displayed prominently on every src page, for the purpose of alteration and distribution of src.

[zedshaw]

tl;dr If you fork and don't pull-request then that's the violation.

That's the point. If you fork and don't do a pull request so I can pull it back, then you're leaving an altered copy out there. Can't do that. If however you do a pull request and I pull your changes in, then your fork is no longer an alteration.

This prevents people from butchering your work because they think they know better and then leaving half-assed junk out there to screw students over, but still lets people contribute fixes.

[bryanbibat]

Noted. Any suggestions on a good license to use for this document to allow non-commercial derivative works?

[noahc]

You're looking for this: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

Although, there is one that prevents modification as well if that's what you're looking for.

[zedshaw]

No, that license allows remixing and adapting the work. That would let people butcher the book and leave broken copies that frustrate students.

[noahc]

Zed, that's what he wanted. As I suggested there are alternatives to prevent someone from changing even one word.

[bryanbibat]

Yup. While it is true that allowing others to modify my work will probably bite me in the ass in the future, there are also some arguments for allowing this.

For one, the book is targeted to Filipino students - teachers may want to modify the names/scenarios to better suit their country. Sure, gives them a low-hanging trolling fruit (e.g. putting vulgar words in the i18n section), but I really don't have the time to review these forks.

[bryanbibat]

Thanks! Will update the document tomorrow to use that in case no one makes a better suggestion.

[albb0920]

Thanks for using cc-by-nc.

[dan_manges]

git is a great vcs, and github a great hosting platform, even if you don't intend to use features like forking and pull requests