Re: Debian and Politeness
On Monday 27 May 2013 10:22:56 Miriam Ruiz wrote:
> 2013/5/27 Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@gmail.com>:
> > On Monday 20 May 2013 09:33:06 Miriam Ruiz wrote:
> >> Free Software is about meritocracy and elitism
> >
> > I have been unhappy with this since I first read it, and had held off
> > saying anything while I pondered.
>
> Just for the record, and to avoid misinterpretations, I was just
> trying to be descriptive in my email, I didn't say I was happy with
> that, I was just describing what I see.
I should have quoted more of the sentence. You in fact said <quote> Free
Software is about meritocracy and elitism, or at least it pretends to be.
</quote>
You appeared to me to be saying that OSS, not you, pretends to be elite.
Whilst it certainly is in many ways elitist, and I agree with you there, I
would have thought that it pretends to be inclusive?
I quite agree that it is often not, in practice, as inclusive as one would
wish.
> Of course, you might not agree with me, and your perception might be
> totally different. If any of you are not perceiving the FLOSS social
> environment around you as technically elitist, feel free to say it,
> I'd be really happy to hear it. It might just be me.
>
> My personal opinion is that for changing things, we have to be able to
> acknowledge what's truly happening, and start moving from there. I
> didn't say I was fully happy with the reality, in fact I'm not, and,
> while I realize that some level of meritocracy is positive, my opinion
> is that politeness, inclusiveness and human values are too.
I agree with this - but I would still maintain that OSS *pretends* to be
inclusive, though it may not actually be so!!
One of the two first phrases that I learnt in French was "Vous prennez les
choses au pied de la lettre". I'm sure that you can see why. :-(
Lisi
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