[Asterisk-Dev] RFC: Moderating the Asterisk Mailing Lists

[Gregory Junker]

> There are plenty of people here who possess tact and diplomacy.  You seem to 
> expect those qualities to be a requirement; they're not.

They are a requirement for any open-source project to reach its full 
potential. Nothing turns off a newbie to a project faster than a 
smartass or hostile response to what they believe is a valid question.

Should those questions be in the -dev list? No, but the response tone I 
am talking about occurs mostly in the -users list, and the perpetrators 
know who they are.

That said, if the doc project is more useful than the Wiki, then perhaps 
the Wiki should be phased out as the doc project matures, and the 
standard reply point the user to a more useful source of information.

It all comes down to one simple fact: open-source projects far and away 
are started and "managed" by engineers, who have demonstrated time and 
again throughout history, and continue to do so today, why they are not 
allowed to interact with the user community. Engineers don't like users, 
they really don't. Engineers believe that users just get in the way.

I can say this because I am an engineer, an electrical and software 
engineer, but I have the unique ability among my kind to see the 
software system from a usability viewpoint, which many engineers simply 
do not realize exists. Asterisk is a HORRIBLY designed project from a 
usability standpoint. Asterisk is an FANTASTICALLY designed project from 
a technical standpoint.

Remember, Windows is not as dominant as it is because it's technically 
superior (it is and it isn't). It's dominant because it is EASY TO USE.

So if you want the project to remain within the community of technical 
users only, by all means continue to berate the new users for asking 
basic questions.

Greg