Re: Why mailing-lists? Usenet have been invented, I hear. ;-)
>>"David" == David Pastern <david@scsenterprises.com.au> writes:
David> I will 100% stand by my original words on elitism being
David> present in linux and its users. I know not everyone one of
David> you guys is like this. The vast majority are nice, helpful
David> and patient from what I have seen on the posts so far, despite
David> seeing the same questions being asked time and time again.
Why is elitism supposedly so bad? Elitism - ie a high
standard of technical excellence - is *exactly* what we're here for,
and continue failure to recognise that will lead and is leading to
problems. Indeed, I support measures which raise the bar to new
maintainers, provided they concentrate on qualities that are valuable
in a developer - chiefly, a very high level of technical competence.
Of course, this does not apply to users, but there is a
spillover effect. Since most people working for Debian are working to
scratch their own itch, (remember, I said most, not all), Debian ends
up being targeted to people similar to the developers, for the most
part. Reaching maximal market share has never really been a goal for
a significant number of developers.
Now, recognizing the Debian should be lead by those who are
most capable, rather than those with blue skin or with
seniority -- does not imply that one has to be rude to people, or
sneer at them. But one does not have to turn the other cheek at
rudeness either, since support is on a voluntary basis, and one does
not _have_ to deal with rudeness.
Unfortunately, one of the corollaries is that since support
happens on a voluntary basis, interesting problems, or reports that
point to flaws in packages tend to be more interesting (ulterior
motive -- fixing flaws improves my own experience with the software).
David> I maintain that RTFM is not a suitable response.
Teach a man to fish ....
manoj
--
He who hesitates is sometimes saved.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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