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

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

On January 7, 2005 02:55 pm, Gregory Junker wrote:
> Going back to the sole Asterisk raison d'etre (sorry, I don't know the
> keystrokes for the special French characters): for Mark to sell Digium
> hardware. It really is that simple.

Yes and no; I'm certain that there'll be some other offerings from Digium.  I 
believe they sell commercial licenses for Asterisk as well for people who do 
custom add-ons and do not want to release their source.

> I am not speaking of "scaring off newbies", at least not those that are
> trying to use it in their house for an incoming line or two. I *AM*
> speaking of scaring off potential commercial clients, with crass
> rudeness in a public venue, by many of the those doing the most
> berating. Until that sh*t stops, anyone who might have been
> investigating Asterisk as a viable alternative for their needs (in
> preparation, perhaps, for selecting a consultant or contractor) now has
> a distinct attitude about the entire Asterisk project (and its products)
> as being run by a bunch of elitist snobs who could not care less about
> the user. For someone doing a bit of advance research, a supported Cisco
> proprietary solution just started looking a WHOLE lot better.

True.

> buffered from the user by a layer of support. For those that bought
> Digium hardware (includes me) that layer ought to be Digium itself, at
> least according to the terms of sale as I understood them.

Agreed.

> the difference is that on the -users list, the list is not required to
> respond. So when the unnecessary response is provided with a large
> "asshole" quotient...well, see above.

Actually the list is, by and large, required to respond -- you have no doubt 
seen the "I posted this an hour ago and have not seen any response -- what 
kind of support is this?" type of posts.

It's the general lack of desire to learn or read before asking that brings 
these kind of threads up in the first place.  It'd be nice to have a "did 
their time" flag and until a newbie "did their time" or at least demonstrated 
an ability for basic research and posting ettiquette all the got was a canned 
response saying where to go for basic help.  :-)

-A.