Mail Archives: cygwin/2006/08/15/14:33:04
On 15 August 2006 18:07, Joachim Achtzehnter wrote:
> A peculiar aspect of all-volunteer free software
> projects (some are wholly or partially funded where this can be different)
> is that nobody can force another member of the community to do something
> they don't want to do, so it is all based on persuasion and winning over
> others by argument.
Remember that word. "Persuasion". It means more than just "issuing
demands". In fact, the funny thing is, that the more often you demand the
same thing, the less persuasive you become.
> ... but to suggest that *only* developers contribute
> and everybody else should therefore just shut up
You aren't going to make any friends by putting words in people's mouths and
misrepresenting what they say or what they intend by what they say. It's a
particularly specious form of rhetorical argument that is guaranteed to
offend.
> is the exact opposite of
> what free software is supposed to be about. A healthy free software project
> depends on and welcomes input from the community. The attitude exhibited by
> some on this mailing list, of trying to muzzle opinions they disagree with,
> does not help.
It's not about anyone denigrating anyone else's contribution, or anyone
trying to muzzle anyone else's opinion. That's paranoid hyperbole and
exaggeration.
It's just that if someone doesn't want to do it, and you aren't persuading
them, to carry on repeating the same line again and again and again and again
is insulting, for three reasons: 1) saying the same thing over and over again
when someone has already explained why they're not going to do what you want
constitutes nagging, 2) saying the same thing over and over again when someone
has explained why they're not going to do what you want to do implies that you
haven't had the courtesy to listen to a word they've said, and 3) saying the
same thing over and over again when someone has already explained why they're
not going to do what you want to do is more-or-less spamming. It's pointless,
annoying, offensive, whiney and arrogant. It just starts to sound like "Me me
me me me I want I want I want" and people quickly start to react to you as if
you actually /were/ a four-year old.
Please see http://isbn.nu/0671723650 for more information.
cheers,
DaveK
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Can't think of a witty .sigline today....
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