Dear fellow gnu/linners
I'm a faithful reader of this list, and an avid user of gnu/linux. In the past this forum has helped me solve my doubts, given me the feeling of community, and even landed me an assignment or two, as I am a freelance journalist. That is partly why I usually go over each and every post regardless of what it says. I say this as someone who cares.
Do we want to be remembered for vituperation, inconsiderate ranting, at times even name-calling? An honourable forum member had mentioned, rightly, a while ago, that everything we write is archived away (doubtlessly cleared too, eventually). What example are we setting, then?
Aren't we representatives of a misunderstood community with few active ambassadors? Should we be quarrelling among ourselves? Don't we (or, some of us) have a mission, defined adversaries, allies? Should there be quibbling between allies then?
Aren't we evangelists? Doesn't that put the obligation of decent behaviour on us? What ambassador acts out of petulance? What sage calls his congregation dolts, or idiots? What example should we be setting? Should we call others stupid, lazy, unthinking, when we were such ourselves when we started out, and perhaps still are?
A champion of free speech, Salman Rushdie, once wrote to the effect that what we despise in ourselves we hate in others.
Should we funnel our fury into a name-calling binge directed at our fellow users?
I hope you will appreciate this communication for what it is-- an appeal to the better sensibilities within all of us, to end the hateful heated repartee we've been seeing over the past few months.
Thank you.
Regards
Suhit Kelkar.
Aren't we representatives of a misunderstood community with few active ambassadors?
Yes.
Should we be quarrelling among ourselves? Don't we (or, some of us) have a mission, defined adversaries, allies?
Even allies disagree on certain points.
Should there be quibbling between allies then?
If such quibbling enhances the knowledge of the person being abused,more power to such quibbling. I disagree with some elitists on this list who believe any newbie question should be answered with hostility,and believe that there's nothing better than keeping GNU/Linux being a hobbyist operating system,hostile to people who are new and want to find out more,abuse distributions which make GNU/Linux more accessible to newbies,but just being part of the same community doesn't force me to stop trying to change their mind.I would like to quibble on these issues,but I don't fancy being called names on public lists,and therefore stay out of the flamewars related to these issues and these elitists.
Aren't we evangelists?
AFAIK,not.
Doesn't that put the obligation of decent behaviour on us? What ambassador acts out of petulance? What sage calls his congregation dolts, or idiots? What example should we be setting?
Irrelevant,considering that we are not,IMHO,evangelists.
Should we call others stupid, lazy, unthinking, when we were such ourselves when we started out, and perhaps still are?
Agree.
<snip>
I hope you will appreciate this communication for what it is-- an appeal to the better sensibilities within all of us, to end the hateful heated repartee we've been seeing over the past few months.
Seconded.
Thank you.
Regards
Suhit Kelkar.
Regards, Easwar Registered Linux user #442065
On Sunday 21 Dec 2008 4:44:12 pm Suhit Kelkar wrote:
Do we want to be remembered for vituperation, inconsiderate ranting, at times even name-calling?
please do not make generalised posts - mention specific context. A post in general like this is of no use.
On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 10:14 AM, Kenneth Gonsalves lawgon@au-kbc.orgwrote:
On Sunday 21 Dec 2008 4:44:12 pm Suhit Kelkar wrote:
Do we want to be remembered for vituperation, inconsiderate ranting, at times even name-calling?
please do not make generalised posts - mention specific context. A post in general like this is of no use.
[snip]
He's not making a generalized post if you *read.* It's specific to people on this list. One, very humbly and quite obviously, wouldn't want to publicly insult people by naming them on a list full of smart people and smart asses. Some people reply to genuine requests with smart ass answers. This simply drives new comers away. They then think we are a bunch of hostile morons. Trust me, they really do. So do you get the point? :-)
His post is of extremely good use for people that use the ear-to-mouth ratio. Only a very small percentage of the subscribers to this list post regularly. The rest do get to read all the nonsense that goes on. Most choose not to react thinking it's a waste of time. This guy has taken the time to write to us so he could knock some sense into us. I think we should appreciate his effort and use suggestions we find acceptable.
Suhit Kelkar, thank you for writing in.
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Easwar Hariharan -
Kenneth Gonsalves -
Suhit Kelkar -
Yesudeep