Re: abandoning the rules of discourse
|"Ronald> The real question is: do we want rules or do we trust that
|"Ronald> everyone will behave as mature individuals.
|"
|" I think that past experience shows that peope can't be
|" expected to behave as mature individulas, at least not all people,
|" all of the time.
That's what I said in the paragraph following this.
|"Ronald> I'd like to opt for the latter, although I know that the
|"Ronald> occasional tiff (or is that with one 'f') will occur anyway,
|"Ronald> people being what they are. People feel strongly about a
|"Ronald> project like Debian and in my opinion, that is good for the
|"Ronald> project because it lessens the chance of inertia.
|"
|" Strong opinions do not necessitate crude and offensive
|" language ;-).
No, but 'offensive language' (or 'spirited words') is more likely to
occasionally appear.
|"Ronald> Mutual respect should be earned and not enforced by rules.
|"
|" Quite so. But even you say "should", not is.
Mutual respect is and can never be enforced by rules. Respect is a personal
thing. It's either there or it isn't.
|" I would not be opposed to a note in the charter of the mailing
|" lists that said repeated abusive or disruptive behaviour on the lists
|" could lead to corrective action, like digestifying a persons posts or
|" even expulsion (I think the list maintainer reserves the right to do
|" so anyway, right?)
Depends. I personally don't think that `technical' lists like this should have
a list-maintainer in any other capacity than an administrative one. A note
in the charter wouldn't heard, but I feel a bit ambivalent towards
formalizing common decency.
Ronald van Loon (ronald@and.nl)
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