On Thursday 18 May 2006 4:05 pm, Mike Doty wrote:
> forwarding at Peters request...

I wanted to let this discussion run its course and ignore it, but I can't help 
but say that I really appreciate the sentiment of Peter.  It's thoughtful and 
fair.

When it comes down to it, you can't blame any one side for an erupting 
flamewar.  There's the instigator, of course. But then there are the suckers 
who take the bait. :-)  It's a "chicken or the egg" paradox.

Previously, I would have said that creating a etiquette 
council/moderator/group for ML's was a great idea.  It's the whole 
benevolent-dictator mentality, which works in smaller groups like an arch 
team (and for Linus, of course).  But to be quite honest, it would never work 
in a group as large and diverse as the Gentoo community.

So here's my proposal: mob rule. :-) If someone is truely out of line, I say 
we let the devs take their objections to private email to let the offending 
party know that their attitude is not acceptable.  But in ML's, we remain 
polite (maybe "civil" is a better word) and discuss the issue at hand-- even 
if the discussion is heated.  I'm sure everyone agrees that public lists are 
not the place for personal attacks.  Considering that this has always been 
the consensus, we should all be able to excerise some restraint and take 
personal issues to private email.

Basically, my point is that Gentoo problems belong on Gentoo ML's.  But 
personal conflicts don't. If a dev doesn't follow that common sense approach, 
then mob rule will prevail. ;-)

-- 
Jason Huebel
Gentoo Developer

GPG Public Key:
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x9BA9E230

"Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand."
Baruch Spinoza (1632 - 1677)