Debian does not have customers (was: Bug#837606: general: system freeze)

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> writes:

> On 2016-09-15 at 21:26, Wookey wrote:
>
> > I reckon a lot of us would be happier if you [Russ] (and Abou) used
> > the term 'users', rather than 'customers'. I know I think that being
> > a customer involves payment.
>
> That was exactly my point: that although many people (including me!)
> think that [the term “customer” entails payment from the customer],
> other people do not - and, IMO, refusing or otherwise failing to
> understand what they mean when they use the term that way is not
> helpful.

That's a point of disagreement, then. I think Russ's drawing attention
to the fact Debian does not have customers is helpful: it clarifies the
discussion and explicitly acknowledges a fact that may have been ignored
by the person using that term ambiguously.

As Russ describes so eloquently, that ambiguity glosses an essential
distinction the Debian Project has from other superficially similar
entities people may be more familiar with.

Ignoring that distinction is harmful to effective communication, because
it fosters an unachievable expectation. Effort to expose and avoid that
particular ambiguity is helpful because it dispels a false expectation.

-- 
 \         “Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the |
  `\                  occurrence of the improbable.” —Henry L. Mencken |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney