Stop. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop

Brian Behlendorf brian at hyperreal.org
Thu Apr 15 16:40:02 UTC 1999


On 15 Apr 1999, Russell Nelson wrote:
> Derek Balling writes:
>  > Possible reasons for people unsubscribing:
>  > 
>  > 1.) The list name, "license-discuss" is ambiguous. Perhaps "license-review" 
>  > would have been more in line with your intent.
> 
> Perhaps so.

Worth changing it, IMHO.

>  > 2.) I cannot find an online charter for the list, so checking to see if a 
>  > topic is on/off-topic for the formal charter is impossible near as I can tell.
> 
> The announcement for the list had the charter.

It should also be in the welcome message people get when they subscribe,
or possibly the confirmation message.

>  > 3.) "Got it? Shut up."  Nice attitude. Is that the official position of 
>  > OSI,  to be completely utterly rude?
> 
> First I said "squash, squash".  Discussion continued.
> 
> Next I put a filter on that Subject line, asking people if they were
> sure that their posting belonged on the list.  Discussion continued.
> 
> Who has the attitude?

Russ, lighten up.  If you're going to guide list discussion, you need to
stop treating the people on this list like they were subscribers to
djb-qmail.  Admit that the list charter wasn't clear enough, and your
attempts to moderate it by rejecting posts with a particular subject line
is clumsy at best, and encourages people to work around it to make their
point.  If you're going to moderate it by dis/approving certain messages,
be up front about it.  I don't think moderating it is a good idea, though.

For the members of the list, *please* take the GPL discussions elsewhere.
The license under review isn't going to be the GPL, and using the GPL as a
reference point for it will not be useful.  The only reference point is
the OSD.  If you think the OSD needs changing, that should be in another
forum.

	Brian






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