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Brian Harring wrote: |
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> |
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> Guess I'll be the killjoy, and throw in the -1 on it. |
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> |
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> Reasons are pretty straightforward (at least to me): |
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> |
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> 1) Creating such channels is just attempting to shift the problem out |
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> of sight. |
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|
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Not out of sight, just to an arena where it is more suitable. When I joined |
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Gentoo long ago, I was told that there were two required mailing lists that we |
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had to be on: gentoo-core, for private, developer-only discussion whose contents |
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are (normally) kept from the prying eyes of our endearing public, and |
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gentoo-dev, a developer/user mailing list for development-related questions |
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regarding all things Gentoo. |
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|
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When -dev evolved/de-evolved (your pick) into being technical && non-technical |
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in nature, I'm not sure. I was either asleep, or entertaining myself with other |
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things. If I had to haphazard a guess, I think it simply "Just Happened" |
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because all devs are automatically subscribed, therefore, when someone has |
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something to say, they stand a high probability of it getting heard by a lot of |
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people. No point in tootin' off your horn if no one's around to hear, ja ne? |
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|
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|
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> 2) Shifting said problem into a concentrated arena means the incidence |
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> of idiot conflicts/trolling/needling/whatever is likely to increase |
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|
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This is possible, but I'll point out that one can also have non-technical talk |
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about all things Gentoo without everyone de-evolving into little charmanders |
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about it. Quipping an example from the debian-project ML, a discussion on the |
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validity of Condorcet voting would be a non-technical topic of discussion that |
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can be discussed (hopefully without igniting). And that is a topic I know we've |
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broached before. |
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|
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If people just act like adults for once, we can actually keep the flames |
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controlled. Note that I'm not saying it'll stop the flames, only that they can |
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be controlled. |
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|
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|
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> 3) said increase means proctors/devrel have more work (meaning more |
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> random outbursts at the proctors/devrel when folks realize that they |
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> *are* going to enforce the behaviour rules, and that the outburstes |
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> can be punished too). |
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|
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Not many people like authoritative figures, no matter the uniform or creed. I |
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guess it's just how we're wired. Free Will and all that jazz. Frankly, no |
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matter what an authority-empowered group does, whether it is for good intentions |
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or not, someone out there will cry foul about it, and raise a whole lot of |
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ruckus over it. devrel's not perfect, but they're not inherently evil or |
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anything either. They're given a task to do, and why people make such a fuss |
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over it baffles me. I guess that's why I tend to not pay attention to those cases. |
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|
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|
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> 4) look through -dev history; the issue isn't OT discussion, it's |
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> people needling/harassing/trolling/(chose your verb) kicking off yet |
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> another "mine is bigger" last word battle on the ml. |
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|
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It's competition, at the core. No one likes draws, ties, or even photo |
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finishes, let alone losing. They like to win, and win by a large margin. If |
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someone tries to slip the last word in to get them over that virtual finish |
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line, rest assured someone else is gonna fire off an even more last word just to |
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one up them, and when we're talking mere microts from the finish line, sometimes |
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the gloves come off. |
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|
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Besides, it's not like a +2 Great Darkwood Crossbow of Acid is all _that_ |
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expensive. Probably a pain in the neck to load (and the kickback has to hurt), |
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but well it just means you need to level up some more :) |
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|
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|
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> Basically, what does this solve? If the intention is to create an OTW |
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> equivalent for the forums, sure, go nuts, but I strongly doubt it'll |
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> improve things on -dev. |
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> |
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> So what is the explicit purpose of this? Honestly assumed it was just |
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> a joke at debians expense initially, but folks seem to be serious |
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> about it... |
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|
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I didn't intend it as a joke. Yes, I interspersed some sarcasm in my original |
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response (As I often do in many of my responses), but that doesn't detract from |
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the seriousness of it. Put honestly, I don't really read -dev any more. I |
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barely even glance at -core. I've missed stuff like new USE flags, interesting |
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GLEPs, new devs coming in, old devs going out, etc. Why?, because the signal to |
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noise ratio was worse than my cable connection on a bad day, and at some point, |
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I just got turned off by it all. Probably much in the same way why I don't pay |
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much attention to the wars going on the world. Right now, I find news reports |
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on changes in traffic patterns to be more exciting. |
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|
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And I looked to debian for inspiration on this because they've had problems like |
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this before. A few of their developers sit in the linux-mips channel, and while |
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I don't know what lists they're all on, one of their devs told me debian-project |
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is one he stays away from. I guess I'm a bit like them; I like the technical |
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discussions more than the expertly-crafted responses tossed back and forth in |
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the many flame wars that pop up on here. And so, I decided to do something |
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about it for once. |
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|
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|
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--Kumba |
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|
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-- |
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Gentoo/MIPS Team Lead |
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|
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"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands |
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do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." --Elrond |
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-- |
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