Netiquette, etc. (was Re: fedora-list Digest, Vol 2, Issue 17)

[Steve Searle]

Around 01:07am on Saturday, April 03, 2004 (UK time), Brian Bober scrawled:

> How can he battle to encourage netiquette when he doesn't display it on his
> own? That seems hypocritical to me. I am not intending to wander into a nest of
> people that will band together and hurt outsiders that aren't part of their
> little clique.

You are exaggerating, I doubt that you could find any other examples of
him "hurting outsiders" or anyone else.  Take my word for it, or just
hang around the list and watch - something which is a good thing to do
for a while before posting to any list.

> Lemme quote something from the Fedora site:
> 
> "The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a
> complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from free software.
> Development will be done in a public forum [snip] By using this more open
> process, we hope to provide an operating system that uses free software
> development practices and is more appealing to the open source community."

I don't see the relevance of your quote to this discussion.


> I'm sure it was just frustration boiling out,

If you are sure of this, then just roll with it - many people get
frustrated at times.  Many lists are far more aggressive than this one.

> I tell it how it is.

Maybe thats all Alexander was doing.

> Well, perhaps the ones most active with Redhat Linux need some
> adjustment to the idea of community, also. Do you think you are going
> to develop community flaming new members of the mailing list?

Primarily we're developing an operating system, not a community. And
clearly you feel that everything must be put in as polite suggestions.
So, while clearly you have the right to act and post however you want on
this list, many of us consider that tradition netiquette includes the
following:

Don't top post.

If you reply to a digest mail, change the subject back to something more
appropriate.

Watch the list for a few days before you post - see how it operates -
what it is for and what it isn't for, see if you are going to be
comfortable in that community.

Alexander makes lots of efforts add quality to the list, both in helping
many members, and making the list better for all of us by trying to keep
a reasonable standard of netiquette.  A bit of time watching the list or
reading the archives should be enough to demonstrate this to anyone.

> You might say that people are buying a service at a park, while at
> Fedora, they are just testers. Well, testing is sort of a payment to
> the developers, so I don't see much of a difference between the
> payment being in money or time. Time is money. Its also payment
> towards the Linux community. Treat your testers with respect.

Testing is more than running a recent release.  Its also about finding
out where you should discuss what you are doing, post bugs, etc.  And
that place is not here.  I will respect testers who do it properly.

> If you can't handle this kind of thing, maybe you should take a time
> out and go for a jog, or just let people who are more tolerant
> respond. Put it in perspective, its not like WWIII was caused or

Just to simplify the chain of events.  On the 2nd you posted to 3
threads about FC2 topics.  On the first one, Alexander politely asked
you to stop, but did give an answer as well.  On the second he again
asked you to stop.  On the third he got fed up and said "Are you just
ignorant? Please go to fedora-test-list redhat com for test release
discussions."  Perhaps you should go for a jog. If you are only seeing
the digest then just live with it - as you say its not WWIII.

Cheers

Steve

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