Re: Wagner: "Actions speak louder than words:They're saying 'Linux Sucks'"
said Art Lemasters (on 2003-04-11),
> Rob VanFleet wrote:
> > On Fri, Apr 11, 2003 at 01:00:54AM -0600, Art Lemasters wrote:
> >
> >> Has anyone here see the following, and if so, has anyone
> >>answered Wagner's propaganda?
> >
> >
> > Um. It's not propaganda. It's basically trolling for page impressions,
> > and you just played right into their hands. Articles like this are
> > targeting to drum up readership. Write up a controversial article that
> > really irks a lot of people and you can rest assured that those who
> > vehemently disagree with you will become your best source of
> > advertising. Think about it. You just spammed this guys article to the
> > entirety of debian-user, one of the more populous mailing lists on the
> > net. All you've really accomplished to to encourage this guy to write
> > more articles just like that one.
> >
> > Rob
>
>
> A few hundred hits from one list won't make that much difference to an
> online news publication. The millions of readers of a publication like
> worldtribune.com will make a difference--a negative difference after reading
> Wagner's spew.
Where did you get the millions of readers stat?
> Our response to such a slam as Wagner's in political activism would be
> to threaten the publication with boycott and to publish opposing viewpoints
> in a competing publication. It wouldn't be to flame the messenger and
> poke our heads back in the sand.
Why would you even give it the dignity of a boycott? This point of view
is not novel, the writer is unknown, and the opposing viewpoint has been
well documented. What about this article warrants posting it to
debian-user?
> I've run Debian Linux for eight years and subscribed to the list again
> (after several years off the list) last night. After my first post
> (heads'-up about Wagner's story slamming Linux security), I'm flamed with
> false accusations that I spammed the debian-user list with off-topic material.
>
> Is there another list for Debian public relations issues? We once
> discussed public relations, occasionally. Is this list coming to the
> youthful rudeness we once saw on the FreeBSD list?
IMO it is off topic - Wagner's obscure and poorly written opinion/troll is
hardly a Debian PR issue. No big deal - this list gets off topic from
time to time with no serious problems.
You were not flamed. Nor was anyone otherwise rude to you.
> I'll use and write about the OS that works the best and has the most
> reasonable user cooperation. And that's why I'm resubscribed for now.
Wicked. Welcome back.
Geordie.
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