List protocol (was Re: 'The man who wants to take your jobs')

[Derek Martin]

On Sun, Mar 28, 2004 at 02:15:57AM -0500, David Kramer wrote:
> I am going to respectfully request that this discussion leave the
> list.  It's as interesting to me as the next person, but this just
> isn't the place for it.

Then, though I am myself no longer interested in this particular
discussion,  I will respectfully request that someone clarify what is
and what is not on topic here.  In my opinion, the answer is, "things
which interest people who work with and/or use Unix and/or Linux."
This is actually MORE specific than the mailing list description,
which states the following:

  This is the general discussion list for the Boston Linux & Unix
  user group. This list is for all topics that don't have their own
  dedicated lists.

Under either assumption, this discussion qualifies...  Please correct my
misconceptions, and/or the website.

FWIW, the main reason I hold this opinion is two-fold:

1. Though this topic is not directly related to Linux or Unix in any
way, it is directly related to why most of us use Linux or Unix.  It's
at least in part how we make our living.

2. Since it is clearly a topic which is important to a large number of
posters, it is inherently on-topic in at least some sense.  Such
discussions will naturally, unavoidably, arise; I think that such a
forum is as good a place as any to discuss them.  I think that to
stifle them is detrimental to the group.

If you do not agree, in my opinion, the best course of action is to
use your mailer to kill the thread, filter it out, or simply press the
delete key.  If your mailer doesn't offer any of these alternatives,
then you are undoubtedly in need of a new mailer...  ;-)  A mailing
list like this one will always have many discussions ongoing, and most
users will not be interested in all of them.

Often, on this list as with others, people will speak up in favor of
killing a thread, whenever it has a political element.  If I may be
blunt, I think this is dumb.  Why do we post here?  Why do we read all
the messages?  Because they interest us.  Because we want to engage in
intelligent discourse,  and possibly open our minds to new ideas,
relating to Linux, Unix, and the reasons and the ways in which we use
them.  If politics affect those things, why shouldn't they be
discussed here?

Users of computers are often very political beings, and computers is
itself becoming an increasinly political field.  If the politics
affecting our group is of interest to the group, then why shouldn't it
be discussed here?


-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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