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The most important problem was omitted entirely - from article and you reasoning too

The most important problem was omitted entirely - from article and you reasoning too

Posted Oct 4, 2007 9:41 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304)
In reply to: The most important problem was omitted entirely - from article and you reasoning too by khim
Parent article: Yet another male perspective on women in free software

All I can say is that as someone who was rejected in exactly the way you describe, you do not speak for me. Not at all.

Being hostile to people simply is not a good thing, *no matter how badly we may ourselves have been treated in the past*, and especially not if you're being hostile to people who have not themselves been nasty to you at any time before.


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The most important problem was omitted entirely - from article and you reasoning too

Posted Oct 4, 2007 18:06 UTC (Thu) by rickmoen (subscriber, #6943) [Link]

Please pardon the interjection:

"khim's" quotation about hackers' tendency to be "hostile to people who seem to be unwilling to think or to do their own homework before asking questions" (taken from "How to Ask Questions the Smart Way") was one of my co-author Eric's, not one of mine, but if you read the surrounding passage, please note that "hostile" in this context denotes only either ignoring the question entirely or pointing out that it's poorly framed and unlikely to be fruitful.

Resulting feedback to one's badly framed query may be blunt and brusque to the point that it seems rude (and, hey, in all honesty, it might also be rude), but it's almost always an interpretation error to read it as personal hostility.

Rick Moen
rick@linuxmafia.com

The most important problem was omitted entirely - from article and you reasoning too

Posted Oct 16, 2007 16:34 UTC (Tue) by einhverfr (guest, #44407) [Link]

However, there is a difference between a comment like:

"I don't know off the top of my head, but you might have better luck on the pgsql-perform
list"

and
"The pgsql-perform is the right place for these queries.  Next time, please review the list
descriptions before deciding where to email your question."

(In fairness to the PostgreSQL folks, their lists are the most helpful I have seen anywhere.)

I have been on lists where there have been quite hostile people who throw personal attacks for
no real reason (OSI's License-Discuss comes to mind).  And in general what is missing is an
involved list owner who is willing to take some of the work on shepharding the conversation
(this doesn't mean heavy-handed moderation, just someone who people respect to remind people
when they are outside the bounds of what is beneficial on the list).

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