Re: DW

["Herman Robak" <herman@skolelinux.no>]

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 09:31:50 +0200, Clytie Siddall  
<clytie@riverland.net.au> wrote:

> I had a small group, some of them not feeling confident about posting on  
> the main list, and we had a lot of specialized stuff to discuss. It made  
> sense to me to combine the specialized aspect with mentoring the  
> less-confident people. It beats me why it _was_ a contentious issue. It  
> never seemed to me that the people who responded, and I, were talking  
> about the same things. :(
>
> I have encouraged new people to post here, and I've been disappointed  
> with the response to those posts. Does anyone say, "Welcome to Debian- 
> Women, X! Great to see you here. I can see that Y is important to you,  
> and I'm sure there will be someone here with the expertise you need, or  
> who can refer you to it. ;)"

<distanced response>
It does not scale very well.  Debian is vast.  Scaleability matters.
</distanced response>


> This is not superfluous, it's the stuff of which growth is made. People  
> need to feel welcome, valued and that others are willing to listen and  
> to understand. I have never encountered such difficulty trying to get a  
> simple point across as I did in that "contentious issue", yet this is  
> the place where I would have expected _more_ understanding and  
> willingness to be flexible, not less.

 Thank you for emphasising this so thoroughly.  You have pre-empted quite
a few "buts" here.  The kind of environment you are promoting here is
just not sustainable on a big, general mailing list.  It has to be small,
so that the core members can spend much time on each newcomer.

 I don't think anyone here dismisses the value of such a friendly
environment.  However, if it has to remain small, will it last?
Maybe we should just give it a try...

--
Herman Robak