[clug] Open Source Software's Dirty Little Secret

[Peter Barker]

On Sun, 13 Sep 2009, Ben Chaplin wrote:

> I concur wholeheartedly.  For three years I've enjoyed watching people solve 
> interesting problems with linux but now there is far too much of this crap.
>
> Want a good community?  Stop driving people away with offensive, and frankly 
> off-topic, threads.
>
> Unsubscribed now.

That's a shame.  I think both the community and yourself have lost 
something there, and I urge you to reconsider.  Your mail reader may allow 
you to "drop" the thread...

It would be nice to know whether you find the thread offensive because of 
the subject matter, or because of the aggressive, ad hominem attacks that 
we've seen throughout.

I don't think the thread is necessarily off-topic.  I doubt there is a 
"charter" for the mailing list.  http://www.clug.org.au/ states, "There is 
a mailing list for the discussion of anything to do with Linux in the 
Canberra area. " (hey, look, I cited something! :) ) - and that would seem 
to include this sort of discussion.

I've enjoyed the thread - apart from the personal attacks.  I would like 
to see less handwringing, more citations and less "proof by assertion" :-) 
Even more anecdotes would be nice - IIRC, we have had only one person hold 
up a particular incident and indicate they took offense to it.  IMO, all 
should think about that one....

As others have stated - we want to fix any problems which are driving or 
keeping people away, but to do that we need to know what the problems are. 
At the end of all of this discussion, it would be nice to get some 
concrete answers and proposals.

Yours,
-- 
Peter Barker                          |   Programmer,Sysadmin,Geek.
pbarker at barker.dropbear.id.au	      |   You need a bigger hammer.
:: It's a hack! Expect underscores! - Nigel Williams