Re: [gentoo-dev] ML changes

[Seemant Kulleen]

Thanks for expressing your point of view that clearly.  I stand with
you.  Gentoo, for a while, has been taking itself *way* too seriously.
Perhaps that mentality is part of the inevitability of a project's
evolution through its own stages of life.  Or perhaps, it's just human
nature to shriek in a frenzy about things we don't like, and demand that
"something must be done" and "won't someone please think of the
children????"  which brings this sort of action about.

I've said for a while now (on this list, on my blogs) -- bad behaviour
happens on this list because we (as a community) allow it to happen.  If
it's not encouraged and trolls are not fed, they die out.  Part of the
thrill of someone raising a pointless argument and picking on
ridiculously petty details is the satisfaction gained from others taking
that stupidity seriously and wasting their (and everyone else's) time
with it.

So I say to you (the developer community): stop the insanity.  This
whole business of whitelisting is rather a ridiculous notion, that is
not scalable and serves only to create distance between those with
@gentoo.org addresses and those without.  As a result, the @gentoo.org
island isolates itself even further than it is already.  That in turn,
only worsens whatever problems we perceive.

What I find absolutely astounding is how much power Ciaran (we all know
the elephant in the room that motivates this newest council
announcement) wields over Gentoo.  You know what?  The fact that Gentoo
as an entity still reacts to one person this way means, in all but name,
that Ciaran actually is the de-facto lead developer of Gentoo.

This leaves two courses of action.

1. Officially install him as such; or
2. Stop letting him wield his power over you.  (yes, you, not us --
concentrate on how much you let him affect you).



Thanks,

Seemant