LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: David Lloyd <lloy0076@rebel.net.au>
  To  : David Fitch <davidf@parachilna.com>
  Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 19:47:18 +0930

Re: KDE3

Hmmmm....

> trouble is list moderation is a lot of effort for some poor sucker,
> er, volunteer.

And they get flamed by people who believe they have not been treated
fairly.

>  And then you get the whole argument about someone
> sort of censoring or approving each post etc.  Personally I prefer
> procmail recipes to delete or otherwise deal with this type of thing.

You don't need to censor the mailing lists; if a particular member goes
a little overboard in a post or series the other members have a tendency
to bring that member in line. Community "censorship", if I might tell
you, is the most effective way to bring allegedly ill-behaved members in
line.

Aside from which, one can get oneself into a muddle if the person who is
allegedly ill-behaved happens to also have demonstrated and continues to
demonstrate a willingness to help others, the open source community and
everyone else and sundry. Other might also accuse some members of
allegedly having a big ego -- I assure you that one needs a big ego and
a lot of confidence in one's self to successfully promote any product.

But look at all the other big egos out there who have made successful
computer products, services or developed new ideas:

* Bill Gates (MICROSOFT)
* Richard Stallman (GNU)
* Dan Bernstein (QMAIL & DJBDNS)
* Hans Reiser (REISERFS)
* (that rude guy who runs smoothwall) (SMOOTHWALL)

...and not to mention Linus Torvalds himself (1). I've seen Bernstein,
Reiser and the latter person go off at people -- they are devestatingly
egotistical people who are devoted to their own causes (and sometimes to
each others) and they will be even more egotistical than even I can cope
with to further them. I think all communities need a small group of
strong, egocentric (to a certain degree) people to survive; we have that
in LinuxSA and I don't believe there's anything particularly wrong.

LinuxSA is strong because it has people with strong personalities within
it. It is not your usual, stifling politically correct group of computer
geeks who only talk about technical stuff. Our strength is in our
diversity and it is certainly not, in any way, served by stifling that
individuality. Sometimes particular characters in this group can say
things that are a little harsh or easily misundersttod.

I say let the freedom to speach continue. Calling for censorship will
not enhance LinuxSA nor the open source movement in this state. Speaking
with strength, with personality and with truth will. I will continue to
speak with strength, with my own personality -- flawed as others may
believe it is -- and with what I believe to be the truth.

I dare everyone else to do the same.

DSL

(1) I wonder what Linus developed ;-P

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