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When I ran the tech pubs group at WEITEK, I did this all the time. The
copyright page of every document had full credit, including any helpful
folks from other departments who made a contribution.
Not everyone wants their name on the documentation, so it's best to ask
first, but most people are very pleased to see their names down in black and
white on something printed and "permanent" -- however ephemeral it's likely
to turn out to be in practice.
In some ways, it's just as good to circulate a memo after any large project
that publicly thanks the people who helped. But people like credit in the
document itself.
As for phone calls, my employees and clients have generally felt that
everyone should take the customers seriously -- there was no such thing as
"not my job" where customers were concerned. In my years at WEITEK, I only
got a handful of calls from customers, though my name was on every document
in one capacity or another. Fielding questions was hardly a burden. (I
always felt that, if anything, I was more isolated from my readers than I
ought to be, anyway.)
I have trouble taking the lawsuit issue seriously when it is discussed among
people who haven't consulted their own lawyers. There are a lot of corporate
superstitions out there. Leaving names off documents to avert the lawyers'
evil eye is whistling past the graveyard, in my opinion. But ask your
lawyer.
