On 10/29/2013 12:22 AM, Chris Angelico wrote: > On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 3:03 PM, <ru...@yahoo.com> wrote: >> Regarding esr's "smart-questions", although I acknowledge >> it has useful advice, I have always found it elitist and >> abrasive. I wish someone would rewrite it without the >> "we are gods" attitude. > > I find it actually pretty appropriate. The attitude comes from a > hierarchy in which we are not at the top - but neither is esr. On the > roleplaying game Threshold, there's a help file about that, which > succinctly sums up what I'm trying to say, but it doesn't seem to be > on the web, so unless you want to telnet to thresholdrpg.com, create > an account, and type "help hierarchy" at the prompt, you can't see the > text of it. Oh well. :| Anyway, point is: We're in a hierarchy (or > actually several independent and unrelated ones), and being at the top > means (in the open source world) being everyone's servant; and the > people at the top simply don't have time to be _everyone's_ servant > personally, so they need some sous-servants to help them to help > people. (Obvious example of that in the Python community is Guido at > the top, other core committers and PEP writers and so on helping him, > and then the large crew of core question-answerers, bug triagers, > patch writers, etc, etc, etc.) You offer courtesy to those who are > above you; they're giving of their time freely, making themselves your > servants, and all they ask is that you make it easy for them to do so. > That's a pretty good deal for all of us at the bottom of the hierarchy
This is a matter of philosophy and opinion so it is way off-topic and not something I want to continue discussing but... One doesn't offer courtesy in return for free software, one offers courtesy because the other person is a human being and with courtesy is how you'd like him to treat you. But in the open software world we're often not talking about demands for courtesy so much as for deference. The reasonable quid-pro-quo in open software is that developers get enjoyment of producing good stuff, voluntary respect and thanks, free feedback, bug reporting, patches. Users get good free software. There is no need for more than that. Your hierarchy is particularly unappealing to me. We all know that such hierarchies exist in the real world, but there is a question: should they be promoted as a natural and desirable state of society to be encouraged? There are people like Ayn Rand who have argued they are natural and should be encouraged. But I, having grown up with the concepts of democracy, egalitarianism, and individualism in which treatment I ask for I should also extend to you, don't accept those views. In fact I think they have a somewhat fascist odor. I don't wish to participate in a culture or sub-culture in which such "worth" hierarchies are promoted. Finally, your choice of a game based on feudal medieval standards of behavior and morality to explain your view does not help your argument IMO. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
