[OT] Re: AIOT: American Idol for OT??
On Fri, Mar 09, 2007 at 16:54:12 -0500, John - wrote:
> I'm still a newbie at Debian (I started when Woody was in Testing),
> and I owe a lot both to this list, and also to several of the OT
> activists, one of whom gave me invaluable help off-list when I first
> posted here. And I surely approve of folks taking an active part in
> arguing about matters controversial.
>
> Still, the continuing rant has become a plague. When I CTRL-d these
> threads, I wonder what I missed, and whether somebody lapsed and
> included genuine content. But when I read them, I am dismayed by the
> lack of depth and information, the blind ideology, and the adolescent
> self-assertion.
>
> I even wonder whether, as a political scientist (trained in political
> theory/political philsophy and international politics) retired from a
> good department at a respectable university, I may owe something back
> to this list. So here's my proposal:
>
> Will others join me in playing Simon Cowell in treating OT postings
> like auditions on American Idol? Specifically: cut the performance
> short at the _first_ error or stupidity or other flaw, and then make
> just one helpful comment on the merits that points the way to a better
> grasp of the topic, should anyone want that.
>
> Perhaps if enough of us did responded in this fashion -- perhaps we
> should mark our responses AIOT so that they would be easy to avoid --
> perhaps one of two goods would result: Either folks would just quit
> it, or at least the quality of argument might improve?
>
> Realistically, this proposal of mine might just make things worse, so
> I am hereby consulting to see what others think of it.
As a scientist employed at a respectable Photonics institute, I think
that you should be careful not to stand too close to Steven Colbert,
because the two of you might otherwise pair-annihilate in a burst of
gamma radiation.
--
Regards,
Florian
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