Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: have portage be quiet by default

[Zac Medico]

On 11/14/2011 02:52 PM, Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn wrote:
> Zac Medico schrieb:
>> On 11/14/2011 09:38 AM, Dale wrote:
>>> As I type:
>>>
>>> emerge should show build output by default (unless --quiet-build=y) 42%
>>>
>>> So far that's the winner.  As I posted earlier, people expect things to
>>> work like they have always worked.  I say that as a user.
>>
>> As I've explained in my post to that forum thread [1], you have to
>> factor in the "silent majority" that welcomes the change and does not
>> express it publicly. A forumor mailing list thread tends to attract a
>> "vocal minority", which tends to bias the discussion (or voting results)
>> in way that does not give a fair statistical representation of the
>> gentoo population as a whole (it excludes the "silent majority"). It's
>> part of human nature that those who are displeased with the changed more
>> likely to speak up than those who welcome the change.
>
> For the record, I think as lead developer zmedico should have the final
> word over what is default in portage, and if arguments or compromise
> proposals fail to convince him otherwise, then it shall be as he decides.
>
> That being said, please keep the crap out of this discussion. Especially
> the claim that the majority of users welcome this change. You have no
> data to back this up, other than selective perception à la "in 14 hours
> after proposing this change, no dissenting opinion was posted to
> gentoo-dev". In fact, the data which was collected so far suggests
> otherwise.
>
> The vocal minority argument is just made up. A vocal minority can push
> or oppose changes.

You've failed to understand the implications of the "human nature" part
of the analysis. Since people who are unhappy with the change are more
likely to speak up, and thereby join the "vocal minority", the "vocal
minority" is likely to contain a larger percentage of unhappy people
than percentage that exists in the whole population.

In the current context, this means that people who are unhappy with the
change in defaults tend to to be more likely to join the mail and forum
threads than people who welcome the change in defaults. This tends to
bias all of your statistics in favor of the unhappy people.

> If you think that the change is better for users, and they just need
> time to adjust, then be a man and stand to your opinion. Don't hide it
> behind such phony claims.

Honestly, I don't think that my opinion weighs more than anyone else's.
-- 
Thanks,.
Zac