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On Tue, 2020-12-01 at 05:15 +0200, Andreas K. Hüttel wrote: |
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> This leaves us with two options: |
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> |
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> 1) shut down OTW |
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> or |
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> 2) replace or supplement forum moderators with people willing to |
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> fulfill the |
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> moderator role in OTW |
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> |
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> I dont see 2) happen (for the simple reasons |
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> * that it will be difficult to find someone to do the work |
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> * and that noone has volunteered to do it over the past year |
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> ), so 1) it is. |
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> |
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|
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The more I think about it, the more this seems to resemble gentoo-dev |
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moderation. |
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|
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To recap, we've closed down gentoo-dev to public because of a few |
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people misbehaving. This was the wrong solution to the problem, |
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and in my opinion -- and I say that as someone who originally pushed |
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for it and then regretted it -- this has done more harm than good. |
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It did not solve the problem, and it has done harm to our community. |
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In the end, the problematic individual was banned anyway, and the list |
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was reopened. |
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|
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I feel like the whole OTW situation is similar. OTW is not the root of |
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the problem, it is just its biggest symptom. I feel that we're trying |
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to eliminate one symptom and hoping that would be enough to cure |
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the disease. Sure, that works for a common cold but I think it's |
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a long shot for the Forums situation. |
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|
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Andreas is right that replacing Forum moderators isn't easy. However, |
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if we leave things as-is and just apply a drive-through band-aid, |
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the problem will return in one form or another. I know that political |
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correctness asks us to discuss problems, not people -- but what *if* |
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people are the problem? I really feel like we should not be discussing |
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'applying this or that band-aid to Forums' but 'saying "thank you" to |
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our Forums team and starting over'. |
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|
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Sure, it will take some time before a new team forms, from people |
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actually willing to keep Forums a quality ground for everyone. It |
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might be necessary to disable the most problematic Forums for the time |
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being, or even the new team may decide not to have such a forum at all. |
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The experience with many projects inside Gentoo proves that once |
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the most problematic people left the project or were forcibly removed |
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from it, long-defunct projects started thriving again. I don't see why |
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the same couldn't work for Forums. |
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|
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I don't feel like us arbitrarily making decisions Forums team disagrees |
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with and then hoping that things will work out is right. If Forums |
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team does not have the best Gentoo interest at heart (and I feel like |
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at least some of the Forum moderators have lost contact with 'Gentoo |
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the distribution' a long time ago), then it is time to make a new |
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Forums team. A team that cares about Forums benefitting Gentoo users |
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more than about chit-chatting with their buddies from the old days. |
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|
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|
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-- |
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Best regards, |
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Michał Górny |