[asterisk-dev] How to behave on the list [was: 1.6 dialplan yada yada]

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 10:14:51PM +0000, Jared Smith wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 16:50 -0400, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> > So, let me see if I have this right, Bill:  Russell is right in saying
> > that we have to have our disagreements in public, but he's wrong
> > because disagreeing (in public) is not "behaving"?
> > 
> > :-)
> 
> No, you've got it all wrong!  (OK, I'm joking too...)
> 
> On a more serious note, though, I have to point out one thing that I
> strongly feel the need to address.  ???(Before I get started, however, let
> me point out that I'm not talking about any one person in particular
> here, I'm just responding to Jay's comment as it was convenient to
> respond to.)

I don't mind being a pedagogical example.

> Public disagreements on the technical aspects of Asterisk itself are one
> thing (and I might even add a healthy thing, given the size and breadth
> of the Asterisk community), but having the discussion degrade into
> personal attacks doesn't do much (if anything) for the advancement of
> Asterisk.

And, so I'm clear: I don't disagree with you at all.  I merely object
to the characterization of one as the other.

The only thing I've seen in the last week that came close to an
"attack", by my standards, was the observation about milliwatt tone
frequency choices and developer competence, just last night, and a) it
wasn't an attack on any specific named person, and b) the first person
who brought it up was a Digium employee (I think), who was himself
bemoaning that it was incorrectly implemented.

And then we got the really good reason *why* it's bad to do it that way
(which I myself only knew vaguely; thanks to the gent who refreshed our
memories...).

>                                Having been the Community Relations
> Manager for Digium up until very recently, I'd hope to think that I'm
> not the only one with this view, and even though I've taken on a new
> role at Digium, I hope that we can continue to have vibrant
> communications and a strong productive relationship between the people
> writing code for Asterisk (both inside and outside of Digium) and the
> community members at large.

And I don't disagree.  But it's traditional that tech lists are
inhabited by hackers, and hackers are often too busy (or too Asperger's
afflicted; call it how you like) to leaven their technical opinions
with politeness.

If anyone needs any more on that, you might want to read this, if you
haven't already:

	http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

It's the best writeup on the topic I've ever seen, though the same
group of people who complain about what I suggest it here to solve tend
to react to the writeup itself in the same way: damned elitist geeks; I
don't need to take their crap.  :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
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	     Those who cast the vote decide nothing.
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