[luau] IMPORTANT - Upcoming List Policy

[Brian Low]

Charles,
  Good Point :)  Very well put :)

Brian

Brian Low
Security X
1515 Nuuanu Ave. #555
Honolulu, HI 96817
Phone: (808) 371-3571
E-Mail: securityx at runbox.com


-----Original Message-----
From: luau-admin at videl.ics.hawaii.edu
[mailto:luau-admin at videl.ics.hawaii.edu]On Behalf Of
cpaul at telemetrybox.org
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 12:19 PM
To: luau at videl.ics.hawaii.edu
Subject: Re: [luau] IMPORTANT - Upcoming List Policy


> With the Linux for Schools project successfully underway, more and
more
> educators and non-techies are joining this mailing list.  The
> self-censorship that MonMotha mentioned would be ideal, and possibly
> crucial, to keep these people interested in the Open Source community.

> Wouldn't they rather trust a group of individuals who can express
their
> ideas and opinions eloquently? 

I will not support efforts to water down geek culture for the sake of
keeping appearances with the bourgeois.  Tactically speaking, an
informal prohibition against some of the 'baser' elements of geek
language and culture might be a good way to attract and retain total
newbies.  

Strategically however, it will be a bad move.

Geek culture and jargon are a part of our identity as hackers -- we
should never allow our language and actions to be constrained within a
set of words and behaviours deemed acceptable by some close-minded suits
(And at the same token, we shouldn't force the newbies to speak our
language).  

A starched list of self-censored emails will end up as being repellant
to geeks who have already been exposed to the global Free Software
hacking culture.  This may or may not seem trivial - but I feel that
this is an important fact that needs to be taken into consideration.  I,
for one, know that a young geek would rather spend time communicating
about hackish things and plugging into a rad international community,
than immersing themselves into a business-friendly medium with
imperatives to increase market share for a certain category of software
'products'.  


It's about being understanding and open-minded.  And if new list-members
can't fight the mind-fuck and broaden their horizons to accept another
culture's idiosyncrasies, they might need to be subscribed elsewhere.

We have mailman, it's not that hard to add another list.


Mahalo and thanks for the thoughtful response,
charles