[plug] Arguing on list

[Bret Busby]

Leon Brooks wrote:
> 

<snip>

> Heck, arguing on lists has gone on for a long time, at least it has for
> the twenty years I've participated, and was going on when I arrived.

That doesn't make it right!

Remember that WA supreme court judge, who said that it is okay to bash the wife,
every once in a while, and the other WA supreme court judge that said that, if a
wife is not a willing partner in sexual intercourse, that it was alright to beat
her into submission, both quotes made in the last five years? It may have been
regarded as
acceptable behaviour, back in the cave man days of the supreme court judges, who
do not
live in the real world, but, that does not make the bahaviour right.

> People who complained about the complaining and arguing were usually
> flagged TEA (Too Easily Annoyed) and banished from the list for a while.

That sounds dangerously like mob rule; the kind of lawlessness of lynching mobs,
where the loudest prevail (sounds like politics).

> If it bothers you, perhaps there should be a plug-heated (gloplug?)
> mailing list that only mature and thick-skinned PLUGgers subscribe to
> (or to which you are auto-subscribed two months after your first posting
> in plug), and into which potential arguments could be taken. I'm sure
> Matt would cheerfully oblige if asked.
> 

<snip>

I suppose it goes to the purpose of the mailing list.

A person who does not know much about a particular topic,  such as mta's
(whatever that stands for - just another obscurantist TLA!), and even people
with quite alot of knowledge, who can learn even more, could learn from rational
discussions on such topics as the merits and faults of particular variations of
a utility, and
where one particular application or Linux distribution would be used and another
not used, depending on the features and purposes, and shortcomings of each
application or Linux distribution.

However, heated argument does nothing to assist people who want to learn, and
the mailing list is supposed to be about furthering the cause of Linux, in
encouraging more people to use Linux more often, and to increase people's Linux
skills and knowledge, through advice and discussion (or, that's what I
understood the purpose to be, anyway), as opposed to some argument arena of the
same nature as feral (and other levels of) parliament. If people want that level
of debate, then, surely, they can watch the parliamentary broadcasts on TV, or
go and watch the parasites in action, live.

Some apparent knowledge has been conveyed (I believe), in the argument about the
various mail utilities, apart from the emotive interference, which may have
clouded some of the information.

I believe that the interests of PLUG, and of the mailing list, would not be
served by creating separate mailing lists for varying levels of being
"thick-skinned" (should that read varying levels of pig-headed bigotry? (note:
bigotry =
intolerance of other people's opinions) ), but, rather, by people trying to make
constructive, rather than derogatory postings, so that we can all have the
opportunity to learn; for those of us who are willing to learn, and who do not
pretend that we know everything.

As I believe Christian had said; he had put up a query, to learn from people's
experiences with different mail utilities. We then got stuck with an argument,
with emotive belittling of people's submissions. That does not help anyone, and
would not encourage any "lurkers", or spectators, or people trying the mailing
list, to see whether it is worthwhile.

If another mailing list is to be created, and the postings separated from the
primary mailing list, at all, perhaps, it could be one that
relates to the arrangements for the game-playing (by game-playing, I mean such
things as the
quackathons, and so on).

-- 

Bret Busby

........................................