discuss: mailinglist policy/politeness
Subject:
Re: mailinglist policy/politeness
From:
David Lawyer ####@####.####
Date:
5 Mar 2005 23:24:38 -0000
Message-Id: <20050305232127.GB909@lafn.org>
On Fri, Mar 04, 2005 at 12:54:28PM +0000, Machtelt Garrels wrote:
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>
> Dear All,
>
> Allow me to ask you gently, but firmly, to try and stick to a couple of
> simple rules regarding respect for eachother. I brought up this subject
> before, so I'm not going to repeat myself, you can check the archives at
> lists.tldp.org. A summary:
>
It's also important for people to be able to express facts and opinions
and these may well reflect negatively on certain individuals. Democracy
requires free and open discussion of issues.
But it's important to make accurate statements when criticizing someone
else. For example, someone once wrote (on the LDP list) that it had been
shown that my understanding of the subject was so deficient that I was
in no position to criticize. In this case, I believe that I had good
understanding of the subject and thus the premise was wrong. But even
if the premise was right, it shouldn't be implied that whatever I say in
the future about this should be ignored since I'm "in no position to
criticize".
> - - no religion wars;
> - - this includes discussion about MS vs. TLDP and UNIX vs. Linux etc, we
> have few enough resources as it is, without wasting them on these
> subjects;
But it's perfectly OK to compare Linux to MS and some of the HOWTOs do
this to some degree.
> - - try and look things up on the website before posting requests for
> changes;
> - - negative remarks are easy to generate, but hurting to the receiver, try
> to be constructive or shut up;
Honest criticism, such as regarding Al Devs HOWTOs, may be quite negative
and hurt the fellings of the author. It's unavoidable. Also, failing
to criticize may allow wrongdoing or mistakes to continue and sometimes
even results in the demise of an organization.
David Lawyer
> - - respect for people whose native language is not English, but who try to
> contribute in a positive way.
>
> And again, try to place yourself in the shoes of the receiver(s) before
> hitting the Send button.
>
> I dearly hope this is the last time this subject has to be brought to your
> attention.
