> So, as for the subject of the email and after related threads on > debian-devel, this whole thing has all made me pretty sad. The general > culture of the project lately has made me feel uncomfortable and > unwelcome. A lot of people on debian-devel are talking about folks > being too sensitive, lacking humor, promoting censorship, and not
Elizabeth, Yet another time...having some people more vocal than others does not mean that the entire project share their views. The atmosphere on -devel (or -project, which I don't read) is currently not really attractive, which is indeed (imho) a seasonal problem: basically, due to the freeze, many developers are quite less busy and the flamewar ratio increases. Indeed, if you ignore the one or two stupid threads in -devel, the lists is very easy to read and very useful. This is what Esc-r is for in mutt.... Moreover, those people who are rude are a very little minority, to my experience. Unfortunately, they're doing much noise and don't even recognize themselves when pointed as rude people. They even become aggressive towards those who try explaining *their* view (the last game seems to call them 'bigots'). This is the well-known limit of so-called free speech, which as many freedoms, stops when it is hurting the freedom of others. I'm afraid that the most vocal people about such free speech often forget about this basic principle (or haven't learned about it yet). One of the richnesses and weaknesses of Debian is its self-governance: the project is able to adapt itself to problems but it sometimes takes time. There is no need to put "shame on Debian leaders" like someone followed up to your mail (someone who apparently doesn't know Debian very well if he thinks that "leaders" have power on this). I think that the current debate/discussions also show that many people in the project care about the social aspects. This is very well explained by Holger in http://layer-acht.org/blog/debian/#1-196. Again, please don't "throw the baby with the baby bath water" (yet another French expression....which is certainly less debatable than stories about broomsticks in weird places).... and also don't idealize the Ubuntu community friendliness too much, maybe...:)
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