Re: rampant offtopic and offensive posts to debian-user
On Sun, May 20, 2007 22:15:34 PM +0300, Andrei Popescu
(andreimpopescu@gmail.com) wrote:
> On Sun, May 20, 2007 at 11:57:42AM +1000, Ben Finney wrote:
> > If the volume of messages in an off-topic thread is large enough that
> > an entire separate list is being considered, the off-topic diversion
> > is already beyond the level Joey describes as "social lubricant" and
> > into the level of disruptive noise.
>
> So people who "know" each other for years on this list are condemned
> to keep discussions (mostly) on-topic or leave the forum?
Of course. How can you ask such a ridiculous question? Please think a
bit more before posting. First of all, going by your "logic", I could
invite all my friends to post here all the proposals on where to go on
vacation next summer or which DVD I should rent tomorrow.
> How is this benefic to the community?
"Condemning" such behavior would:
1) Guarantee that the archives stop being constantly filled with
thousands of idiotic, endless ramblings whose main effect (*)is to
confirm that Debian is the distro/community which should be avoided
the most by those who need something done and/or need support and
company of responsible adults
2) Keep more Debian developers talking directly with end users (one of
the reasons that prompted Joey to start this thread is exactly that
many developers avoid this forum for exactly the lack of such
"condemn")
3) Allow even people without flat broadband to contribute to the
community without wasting money
(the next reason is mainly an answer to the equally brainless reply to
this post which pompously noted, without knowing anything of other
people private lives, how "some of those protesting the most
contribute very little technically")
4) Allow newbies to learn silently, even before they become POP/IMAP
masters, without bearing thousands of completely useless messages,
that is to bring much more people, much more quickly, to the point
where they *can* start to contribute technically to Debian
5) Generally speaking, make clear that one cannot continue to be, in
public at least, a spoiled, egocentric child unable to know when to
keep his or her mouth shut or to focus on any argument... only
because he or she is a very competent software hacker. Which is, by
the way, still one of the main reasons why many non geeks who try
FOSS abandon it the first time they need support and meet this face
of the "community" (not just with Debian, of course).
There. Is this enough? Gee, I can't believe there was a need to write
something so obvious.
(*) Since last Christmas, at least, that is when the small group of
people who caused this thread losed any restraint.
Marco
--
Help *everybody* love Free Standards and Free Software
http://digifreedom.net/
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