On Sat, Jun 22, 2002 at 02:07:44PM +0200, Josselin Mouette wrote:
> All the features having "stupid" names doesn't mean they are useful. The
> troll-o-meter and the plopificator really improve your chatting comfort,
> and you won't find an IRC client having such features.
You'd be surprised what I've seen in IRC clients...
> Yes, this tool is designed for trolling. But don't you often use tools
> designed for trolling, such as IRC or newsgroups clients ?
This is the key point - a tool designed for trolling with a very small
audience. I don't really think the package fits into Debian.
I think you are trying to legitimise something which most people consider
to be wrong/annoying by making the claim that any generally open forum is
designed to be trolled. Quite simply, this is not the case.
And while this is really tangental to the larger discussion of useless
crap in Debian, I do think that a package designed specifically for
trolling has no place in Debian. Putting the package in Debian can and
will be taken by others as an endorsement by Debian of the software. It
will also be seen as an endorsement of the software's intended use. While
I'm all for Debian taking a stand on certain controversial issues and
distributing the software which helps people exercise their rights, I'm
can't say your right to troll a website with an open forum is high on my
list of controversial issues I'd like to see Debian support.
Now before the next idiot jumps in and starts using the word "censorship",
I will beat them to it. Do I want to see some form of censorship applied
to the packages in Debian? ABSOLUTELY! I want each and every developer,
before he packages something, to consider the impact of the package. And
by impact I mean to the people who use it, to the people who wouldn't use
it (and who maybe would rather nobody used it), and to the project's
reputation as a whole. These questions are too big for anyone to answer
arbitrarily for a particular piece of software, but as Debian developers
we have the obligation to answer them for our own packages.
If after doing that, a developer decides the package should be in Debian,
then my opinion doesn't matter a whole lot. I'll agree with the decision
or not, but at that point it's out of my hands - note in the recent winex
discussion I was not in favor of putting winex in Debian, even if I did
want to see Transgaming's hand forced on the whole license mess. I've
supported other controversial packages before, though.
--
Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@bluecherry.net> Certified free software nut
Feb 5 13:27:01 trinity lp0 on fire
-- the Linux kernel, warning that the printer was out of ink
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