On Tuesday, 16 August, 2005 at 14:39 +1000, Helen Faulkner wrote: > Julie Sloan wrote: > > > > this overall increasingly "unfriendly" tone is disturbing. > > the occasional conflict is pretty much inevitable
Actually, it's not. > I don't really know what linuxchix is like, Judging from what I've seen so far, linuxchix is a ski lodge while d-w is a government office. This is how the tone of the two groups compare. > You can certainly ask any questions about Debian usage or involvement > and expect a civil response. Please go ahead and ask your questions > and hopefully someone will answer you quickly and usefully. Civil, yes. I expect that anywhere. Friendly and warm, on the other hand, I don't see an overabundance of *that* going on here. Thank you, Helen. I don't have any questions about Debian yet. I came here to lurk and get to know the "inhabitants" of the list, while waiting for the install discs of my debian-based distro to arrive. Currently I'm using Mandrake. Eighteen mnonths ago I was using Win98 and had never heard of linux. Seven years ago I was thirtyseven and had never used a computer. So the questions I end up having are often pretty basic ones. > Please don't assume that everyone involved is a developer, since > that is far from the case. We do want to help you learn to use your Debian > systems better and we hope that this will encourage you to contribute more to > Debian in the future :) > I do want to contribute to FOSS, but as I am getting a rather late start it might be a while before I'm very useful. Infighting, accusations, bickering, these all distract from learning and discourage from participation. IIRC the thread that spawned this one concerned setting up a subgroup for translators. I paid attention because of an earlier statement that "even people who are fluent only in English can be translators." The thread quickly degenerated into a lot of talk along the lines of "we don't need no stinkin' subgroups," then finally an explanation why. There were a lot of unfriendly and unneccessary words before that final clear and concise explanation. (an aside to Clytie, if she's reading: maybe there's room in linuxchix for a women-translator's list. If you are still interested in forming one, IMO that'd be the place to ask) As far as Jutta's complaint that a section of the site wasn't accessible with lynx (and responses concerning lynx), there again a lot of unnecessarily defensive and aggressive words were exchanged. I've used lynx and been very pleased with it; I'm not aware that it's buggy. I *am* aware that as text browsers go, it's the most well-known one among the layman. Perhaps developers know of a dozen alternatives to lynx, but people like me, you say "text browser" and we think "lynx." Although the accessibility problem seems to be solved, and I wasn't here when the conflict arose, from what I've read I have to agree with Jutta that if there's a problem the correct response should not be to deny there's a problem. > > For another, the name debian-*women* seems a little misleading when such > > a large percentage of the more vocal posters appear to be male. > > Since nearly all the people involved in Debian at present are men, we were > always going to have a lot of men involved in the Debian Women project, > especially to start with. How long has D-W been in existence? Is this still "to start with?" Are there no experienced Debian female people here? I really do think the men -by nature, not by design- have added a tone of aggression, and it's affected the tone of the list as a whole. To someone more timid than I, or of a gentler culture <s>, this would be a serious deterrant to speaking up. I know this, as I was once much more timid :) > I believe that this is a good thing. I disagree. > I hope that this all makes sense. Julie (or anyone), do you have any more > questions about this kind of thing, or anything else? > Thanks for taking the time to answer. I hope you -and others- will also take time to consider the points I raised. julie -- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
