[luau] IMPORTANT - Upcoming List Policy

R. Scott Belford sctinc at flex.com
Thu Sep 5 07:57:01 PDT 2002


On Thursday 05 September 2002 03:59 am, Warren Togami wrote:

> [SNIP]

>
> I am offended that you now try to make yourself look to be the victim
> and especially saying that the "one man show" (implying me) is to blame.
>
> For a while now I thought you had stopped with posts that that in my
> opinion were annoying.  Then now you assume that I was talking about you
> when I said "not mentioning any names".  No, in fact I wasn't talking
> about you.  I was more concerned about the list as a whole.  You start
> to raise accusations...
>
> Forget it, you aren't worth my time...

It is now time to cool it.  Period.  We live in America where we are entitled 
to express ourselves.  I feel like the list maintains a very high tone of 
discussion.  The few digressions into "flames" are shortlived and rather 
innocent.  Without an official policy, Warren, you do make yourself appear to 
be the cop when you are annoyed.  This behaviour does not serve you well.  
For the record, this came up months ago.  I offered to write a list 
guideline; you refused the offer because you wanted to do it alone.

We need a list policy.  Just a basic one.  Trimming quotes 101 needs to be 
included.  What is and is not a flame and how to avoid it.  Perhaps we need a 
policy for educating someone when they make a mistake.  Example:

I use debian on my ibook.  Debian rocks.  It is the best linux distribution.  
It makes windows look like....

this is a worthless post.

I use debian on my ibook.  While it was a struggle at first, I love the 
community support.  Ap-get is such an intuitive interface.  I wish that ...

strong-willed, but at least there is a reason for why I feel this way.

The joke posted the other day about Microsoft code was funny.  It was a joke 
to me.  I did not consider it a flame.  I realize, though, that any time you 
talk bad about someone/something else, wise folks wonder what you are hiding 
about yourself.  Nonetheless, jokes are okay.  Hoala posted why bsd was 
better than linux once; it was very funny.

The response to the joke post defending Microsoft was impassioned, but 
well-reasoned.  It went into the apci specs or whatever they are.  I learned 
a little.  Newcomers to the list were exposed to some passionate thinking, 
but there are no trolls in our group.

I love opinions.  I think the list should encourage superlatives like such 
and such is the best.  The list should require that reaons be included with 
superlatives, though.  Doing this endears readers to your way of thinking.

>
> At first I felt bad about asking you politely about these issues because
> you were gracious in donating one of the 60GB hard drives currently in
> Videl, but now I realize it is a complete waste of my time to respond to
> you.  I should send you a check for $100 just so I don't feel that I owe
> you anything.  Please e-mail me your mailing address so I can send you
> the check.

This statement is riddled with flames.  It burns me to read it.  I personally 
gave LUAU a $200 Western Digital drive that many of you pull data from when 
accessing videl.  This does not entitle me to anything.  On the one hand, I 
am bothered that Warren no longer mirrors debian like I asked (I was given a 
choice with the donation as to what I wanted mirrored)  However, I donated 
the drive and it is not my place to micromanage someone else's decision.  If 
I didn't want someone deciding for me, I could have kept my donation.

The point, you give something of yourself when you join.  You give up the 
right to control everyone because you are part of a group.  You give up the 
right to say whatever you want, no matter how offensive, because you are part 
of a group.

>
> I wont censor you, but I'm thinking about adding you to my personal spam
> filter.

go for it, please.

>
> Sorry,
> Warren
>
>
> To everyone else: Yes I am being irrational.  I cannot deal with
> George.  This is a complete waste of my time.

Then please censor him in your own email account.  It is not fair for us to 
be exposed to your personal grievances with Joe.  He, as a member of our 
community, is free to be judged by the other members of the community absent 
the bias of any one person.


scott

lastly-the solution to this growing pain is not to quit the group or splinter 
our small island with even more mailing lists about linux.  quitting because 
we don't like something is not how communities grow stronger.



More information about the LUAU mailing list