[License-discuss] Keep it civil, folks (and I'll try to make this mail civil).

[Karl Fogel]

A reminder, folks: please don't escalate the personal stuff -- even when
you think the other person is doing so.

The quoted bit of conversation below, for example, is not meant to
target the specific people involved.  I just picked it because it was
recent and on my screen.  There are other instances of needlessly
personal escalation on these lists -- heck, even in this thread.

  Chad Perrin <perrin at apotheon.com> writes:
  >On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 12:28:03AM -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
  >> (Cry me a river.)
  >
  >By the way, your asshole-ish attitude is hilarious when you're
  >addressing something I didn't even say.

If you think someone else is flaming, you will help the whole list if
you defuse it either by simply ignoring it (a surprisingly effective
tactic), or by quoting it and merely raise a rhetorical eyebrow in
response without actually striking back.

I'm fully aware that some people here are "hitting first", in terms of
posting unprovoked or under-provoked flames.  But there's no sheriff and
no jail, so the right tactic for stopping it is to either not respond to
the flame or to respond with something other than flamage.

Everyone -- except the flamer -- who sees you respond in a controlled
and civil fashion will notice you are doing so, and thank you for it.
Sometimes even the original flamer will too, after having a few days to
think about it; we've seen that happen on these lists sometimes.

So please, don't escalate.  It's never worth it.

(I'm fibbing a bit about the no sherrif and no jail: in truly egregious
cases, I'll boot someone from a list if necessary.  After all, it's our
server -- anyone's free to start their own mailing list.  But it's so
much better if we never reach that point in the first place.)

Thanks,
-Karl