A request [LWN.net]

A request

Posted Oct 5, 2015 15:48 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: A request by richmoore
Parent article: Sharp: Closing a door

Greg K-H's quote-of-the-week a couple of weeks back seems very appropriate here ...

Thing is, different people are different, and it sounds to me like there are certain people who just can't respect other peoples' differences. Men and women are different emotionally, East and West are different culturally, and the stereotypical USian seems to think "everybody should be USian". Not a good recipe for an international community.

(Apropos Linus, and moderation, there seems to be a strong correlation between his harshness, and how well he knows the person. Maybe the best rule is "if you don't know the person, treat them with kid gloves. If you do know them, then you know what is acceptable".)

Cheers,
Wol

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A request

Posted Oct 5, 2015 16:35 UTC (Mon) by josh (subscriber, #17465) [Link] (1 responses)

> if you don't know the person, treat them with kid gloves. If you do know them, then you know what is acceptable

While that's a good rule in general, when you're talking on a public mailing list, you're not just talking to that one person; you're setting an example for an entire community.

A request

Posted Oct 5, 2015 20:15 UTC (Mon) by emunson (subscriber, #44357) [Link]

And I think many people will see the harsh reply without knowing of the personal connection and generalize that behavior as acceptable in the community.