minutes: 2026-07-15

minutes/2026-07-15.md

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+# Meeting agenda W29 - Wed 2026-07-15
+
+## Attendees
+- Members: @tomberek @JulienMalka @roberth @Ericson2314
+- Observers: @edef1c
+- Recorder: @tomberek
+
+## Housekeeping
+- Approve Previous Minutes
+    - 7/8 skipped
+    - 6/24: @JulienMalka PR in progress
+- Pick next chairperson
+    - @tomberek backup
+- Attendance
+    - @JulienMalka on vacation next week
+
+## Correspondence and Reports (5 min)
+- Email status caught up
+
+## Async Updates (5 min)
+- Sequencing proposal to delay sponsorship approvals until trademark policy is refined: not seconded, and OBE
+    - asking Board for opinions
+
+### NixCon 2026 Company Approvals (from Zulip)
+Catching up with the backlog of sponsorship approvals. See vote log.
+
+## Old topics (20 min)
+- AI policy
+  - @roberth: Drafted overarching default policy, started the discussions and resulting Nix + Nixpkgs policies have been published. Outcomes from both of those are still being discussed. (eg: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/534657). Mod bootstrap team may prefer to have a default. Would want someone else to drive this further.
+  - @tomberek: solve it in a distributed manner. Teams are developing policies. We can examine those policies and only intervene if we end up with inconsistencies for it.
+  - Discourse: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/discourse-llm-policy/78302
+  - @tomberek: I'll take a look at the draft policy.
+
+- REDACTED TOPIC
+
+- nixos-homepage commercial additions
+    - https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-homepage/pull/2059
+        - WIP page. Recommend re-assesing later.
+    - https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-homepage/pull/1972
+    - Board on Jul 10 approved freelancers on the commercial page
+    - @roberth: Strawman policy proposal, requirements:
+        - have landing page containing an active business registration (can be in footer)
+        - and be in good standing with the community
+        - acting profesionally
+        - approved by the SC
+        - @JulienMalka: +1
+        - @roberth: +1
+        - @tomberek: +1
+        - closing vote by mutual agreement pending further discussion
+    - @tomberek: the point of the page is to be useful for users. Do we want to push back and suggest commercial page is populated by sponsors and handled via the existing mechanism?
+    - @JulienMalka: there is an asymmetry between large companies and active contributors
+    - @roberth: there should be a low threshold for individual contributors and committers
+        - e.g. small fee, free for committer
+    - Outcome: revisit next week due to time
+- @fricklerhandwerk proposal
+- DetSys + social media
+    - similar to above topic about commercial page
+    - Motion passes
+    - TODO: record vote
+
+## New topics (20 min)
+- sponsorship updates
+    - @tomberek: recommend discucssion with mod team
+- Trademark policy
+    - @Ericson2314: may be worth establishing policy for new usages going forward and evaluating current usages separately
+
+## Announcements (5 min)
+- N/A
+
+## Tasking (5 min)
+- @JulienMalka: meeting notes
+- @tomberek: hound people to publish notes

vote-logs/0021-nixcon2026-sponsorship-2.md

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+# Vote 0021: Approve NixCon 2026 Sponsorships (2)
+
+**Proposal**: Approve DeterminateSystems (https://determinate.systems/) **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-06-25> sync **Closed:** <2026-07-01>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | ❌️ | This puts the trademark at risk, directly endorses an actor we all know is undermining the project and its official resources, and makes no sense at all. I've aggressively contested this internally, and I think it's completely indefensible and short sighted. My view is this vote was behind my back, as we'd agreed in our meeting about it to table it a week, yet thirty minutes later a coalition of 4 voters had decided to vote in favor. The most disappointing result of the entire steering committee so far and one I heavily denounce. |
+| John  | ✅ | |
+| K900  | ❌️ | |
+| Luj  | ❌️ | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |
+
+**Proposal**: Approve Nixbuild (https://nixbuild.net/) **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-06-08> sync **Closed:** <2026-06-08>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | - | |
+| John  | ✅ | |
+| K900  | - | |
+| Luj  | - | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |
+
+**Proposal**: Approve Helsing (https://helsing.ai/) Professional Tickets **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-07-10> sync **Closed:** <2026-07-11>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | ❌️ | This is the kind of thing that has the potential to cause friction and it would be wise to preempt it with policy, which would derisk that. My vote goes against until it's tied to a policy that normalizes this, instead of making it on a case by case basis. This is in the spirit of vote 16 "Sponsors must be treated equally according to the established prospectus. https://github.com/NixOS/steering-committee/blob/main/vote-logs/0016-sponsorship-tier-integrity.md To be clear, I think that blocking badges makes little sense, and is a different, and honestly disingenuous intervention, separate from sponsorships. I nonetheless know this has been the norm in the past for other sponsors in the same sector (as substantiated by this even being a question). I'll not engage further with this thread than stating this, which gets past my exit condition for having a clear conscience for pointing out this potential pitfall. I hope we decide to mitigate it. |
+| John  | ✅ | |
+| K900  | - | |
+| Luj  | - | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |
+
+**Proposal**: Approve Jane Street (https://www.janestreet.com/) **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-07-09> sync **Closed:** <2026-07-09>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | - | |
+| John  | ✅ | |
+| K900  | - | |
+| Luj  | - | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |
+
+**Proposal**: Approve Cyberus Technology (http://cyberus-technology.de/) **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-06-25> sync **Closed:** <2026-06-30>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | ✅ | |
+| John  | ✅ | |
+| K900  | - | |
+| Luj  | ✅ | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |
+
+**Proposal**: Approve Clan (https://clan.lol) **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-06-10> sync **Closed:** <2026-06-23>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | ✅ | |
+| John  | - | |
+| K900  | - | |
+| Luj  | ✅ | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |
+
+**Proposal**: Approve Socal-nug (https://socal-nug.com/) **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-06-10> sync **Closed:** <2026-06-23>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | ✅ | |
+| John  | ✅ | |
+| K900  | - | |
+| Luj  | - | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |
+
+**Proposal**: Approve PDT Partners (https://pdtpartners.com/) **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-05-12> sync **Closed:** <2026-05-13>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | ✅ | |
+| John  | ✅ | |
+| K900  | - | |
+| Luj  | ✅ | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |
+
+**Proposal**: Approve ExpressVPN (https://www.kape.com/) **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-05-27> sync **Closed:** <2026-06-22>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | ✅ | |
+| John  | ✅ | |
+| K900  | - | |
+| Luj  | - | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |
+
+**Proposal**: Approve Nixcademy (https://nixcademy.com/) **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-05-26> sync **Closed:** <2026-06-03>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | - | |
+| John  | ✅ | |
+| K900  | ✅ | |
+| Luj  | - | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |
+
+**Proposal**: Approve Cachix (https://www.cachix.org/) **Status:** ✅ Accepted
+**Opened:** <2026-05-26> sync **Closed:** <2026-06-03>
+
+| Member | Vote | Rationale |
+|:--------|:-----:|:----------|
+| cafkafk  | - | |
+| John  | ✅ | |
+| K900  | ✅ | |
+| Luj  | - | |
+| Robert  | ✅ | |
+| Tom  | ✅ | |
+| Philip | ✅ | |