Re: Volunteer software efforts ...
At 12:44 PM -0600 1998.03.17, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>Hi,
>>>"bruce" == bruce <bruce@va.debian.org> writes:
>
>bruce> Richard, I found the "gypsy" message posted by Manoj most
>bruce> offensive, both the ethnic slur (Gypsies are real people, and
>bruce> have been abused much as the Jews have been: driven from
>bruce> country to country over centuries made the scapegoat for crime)
>bruce> and the implication that we were non-contributors pretty darn
>bruce> stupid.
>
> Oh, I was trying to be offensive.
>
> I get that way when I am told that I cannot make rational
> decisions and I go out of my way to be offensive. I was merely living
> up to my reputation.
Manoj, I have a parable for you.
There was a bright young developer who had a Linux system he loved very
much. He had this terrific message-of-the-day that displayed each time he
logged in, reminding him of what a great developer he was, and of the
difference he made to his users.
But one day the developer was mortified to log in and find on his screen
a message informing him that he was a stupid, selfish, arrogant, socially
inept clod of dirt. (One of the users had found that /etc/motd was
writable.) He was pissed, and immediately trashed the user's account.
But despite having removed the offending user, developing on the system
didn't have the appeal it used to. He often wondered why he bothered.
After all, his remaining users weren't very happy either. Something about
it just wasn't the same anymore, he mused, but nevertheless he logged in
once again, to face the message reminding him of what a stupid, selfish,
arrogant, socially inept clod of dirt he was.
You may want to take a look and see who has write permission on you.
> I have never been less than polite to request for help or
> modification in my packages; and I remain civil as long as a modicum
> of civility is extended to me. I never label people pejoratvely
> unless they have themselves caled me names (pinhead programmer comes
> to mind); and the parable I posted was aimed at them.
Do you believe everything you read?
>bruce> This was certainly a low moment in Debian's history.
>
> I think it is a low moment in Debian's history whenever we
> have to defent ourselves to a leading luminary of Debian after being
> insulted in a public list.
You don't have to defend yourself. You don't have to be insulted, either.
You don't *have* to do anything, except die. The question is who you'll
be in the meantime.
>--
> If you don't disturb yourself, like a broken gong does not vibrate,
> then you have achieved nirvana. Irritability no longer exists for
> you. 134
An appropriate selection. I hope you'll take it to heart.
Josh
--
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