NuGet Authors - documentation is unclear

[skrysmanski]

This page describes the <Authors> property like this:

A semicolon-separated list of packages authors, matching the profile names on nuget.org. These are displayed in the NuGet Gallery on nuget.org and are used to cross-reference packages by the same authors.

I have the following "complaints" about this:

1. It says "profile names" but it's not really clear what a "profile name" actually is. I first thought that this would mean "user name" (like "skrysmanski" instead of "Sebastian Krysmanski"); but then I had a look at some of the more popular NuGet packages (like Newtonsoft.Json) and they use "display names" (e.g. "James Newton-King"). I think the wording here should be more clear or an example should be given. The same applies to the related section in the .nuspec File Reference.
   • Another source of confusion regarding "profile names" is the description of the "owners" property in the .nuspec File Reference. This property is also specified as "comma-separated list of the package creators using profile names" but on nuget.org it's displayed with "user names" (e.g. "jamesnk").
2. Not sure whether this is a bug or not but this page defines this property as "A semicolon-separated list of packages authors" while the .nuspec File Reference defines it as "A comma-separated list of packages authors".
3. It also says: "These are [...] used to cross-reference packages by the same authors.". Is that really the case? At least on nuget.org this property is simply displayed as (unclickable) text - and the owners are used for this "cross-reference". The same applies to the related section in the .nuspec File Reference.

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Document Details

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• ID: cb4428fc-215c-78e1-5ff0-fe73f7a08260
• Version Independent ID: 6741b1de-38a4-fbb1-d79d-acc47d549a2d
• Content: Additions to the csproj format for .NET Core - .NET Core CLI
• Content Source: docs/core/tools/csproj.md
• Product: dotnet-core
• Technology: dotnet-cli
• GitHub Login: @tdykstra
• Microsoft Alias: tdykstra

[tdykstra]

@skrysmanski Thanks for pointing that out. I'm putting this on our backlog and we'll leave the issue open until it's addressed.