[gentoo-dev] Re: Upcoming posting restrictions on the gentoo-dev mailing list

[Duncan]

Andreas K. Huettel posted on Thu, 11 Jan 2018 02:12:47 +0100 as excerpted:

> Am Mittwoch, 10. Januar 2018, 18:16:33 CET schrieb Vincent-Xavier JUMEL:
>> Le 2018-01-10 10:53, Michał Górny a écrit :
>> > Last I checked, Gentoo was a Linux distribution. However, some people
>> > prefer to turn it into open discussion forum that has nothing to do
>> > with making a distribution.
>>
>> No it has. Giving power to a subset of users, denying interaction with
>> future contributors unless they enroll is the eaxct way to kill Gentoo
>> as a community !
>
> We wouldn't have needed to go this far if not for a few outside trolls
> who
> * keep pushing their personal agenda in endless threads,
> * confuse their own inability to contribute with being a mistreated
> underdog,
> * and keep commenting opinionated on technical things they
> plainly have no clue about (while whining when are told they sprout
> bulls##t).
>
> We do not have a problem with "future contributors". I wager those will
> rather increase in numbers once the list spam is gone.


This has been my biggest concern about the whole thing:

Are we going to be nipping future devs in the bud because there's now too 
many hoops to jump thru too early, and it's simply not worth the trouble 
when they can (and will) go elsewhere where it's easier,

OR

Are we going to be lowering the unwelcoming noise, confusion and name-
calling threshold and making the community more welcoming for those who 
have a serious interest, clearing out some of the stuff that could 
otherwise discourage them.


It's pretty clear that council believes it's the latter, at least to the 
degree that they're willing to try it for a time, effectively a wager of 
sorts, but I don't believe anyone can honestly say what the real effect 
one way or the other will be until it /is/ tried.


Personally, my viewpoint is that while over the last year or so there 
were some 1-2 level frustrating posters on a 5-point scale, it's nothing 
compared to the level-4 (direct name calling, just short of physical 
threats that justify getting the law involved) stuff that I've seen on 
this list in the some-years-distant past.  In my mind, unquestionably 
that level-4 stuff required action, and it was taken.

The recent stuff seems so much milder in comparison that IMO it's hard to 
see what the hubbub is all about, but there's certainly an argument to be 
made that the previous experience simply desensitized our detection 
meters, and that were it not for that, the recent stuff would seem rather 
more shocking and horrible than it does, and that even if it's /less/ 
horrible, it's horrible /enough/ that it remains unacceptable in a 
civilized society, and if we /do/ accept it, we're effectively pushing 
others that won't, out.


So I'm worried; I honestly don't know which way this will go, but I 
expect it /will/ have a noticeable impact one way or the other.

Of course as others I do wish it never would have come to this, as well, 
but then again we live in a world where some people will always be 
pushing the borders, no matter where they are set, and where regardless 
of where the line is drawn, some people will be excluded, ether because 
of the abuse they refuse to tolerate so they go elsewhere, or because of 
the infringement of what they see as rightful liberty to heap that abuse 
on others, so they go elsewhere.


But the council has made one of the hard calls they're elected to make, 
for which tho I may be worried I can't fault them, and now we get to see 
how it all plays out.  But whether they, and gentoo as a whole, wins that 
effective wager, or loses it, the bet has now been placed, so nothing to 
do but wait and see the results. =:^/

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman