On 31 Jan., 07:13, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 7:57 PM, Emil Widmann <emil.widm...@gmail.com> wrote: > > But. > > I strongly resent the comments and "spirit" of Prof. Fateman. Using > > classifications like "losers" and "winners", "top producers" and "junk > > submitters" he introduces very elitist terminology and patterns of > > argumentation into this thread. This spawned terms like "bad apples" > > and "crackpot" and moved the focus of the thread. Before it was > > positive and open minded with the goal to spread the word of sage and > > attract new people for contribution. Afterwards it had negative and > > defensive tone and - worst of all - was full of doubt. > ... > > But sometimes it is not only important if an opinion is > > right or wrong, but also which words, phrasings, lines of > > argumentation or more general "categories of thinking" are used. Right > > and wrong are just relevant in reference to a specific framework. And > > it is my strong opinion, that this specific intellectual framework of > > categorizing people should not be used on a public (or semi public) > > forum about a volunteer open source project.
Meanwhile I agree, and I apologise for providing some paragraphs about "losers". One should keep in mind that such categories are not objective and thus ought not to be applied to people (being volunteer for an open source project or not). And you are right that the output of a person (to which "right" and "wrong" might apply) must not be confused with the person itself. > I think absolutely *anybody* has the potential to > contribute usefully to the Sage project, and for it to be a net > positive. Seriously. Anybody. Your grandma. Some people program, > some people find bugs, some find typos in documentation, some write > documentation, and some write bug-riddled prototypes that point the > way or teach us a lesson. I almost agree. You are certainly right about my grandma. But I met people who have substantial errors in their work and have a self- esteem that would not allow them to acknowledge that there was anything wrong at all. I don't mind the errors - it is the ignorance that I can't stand. It is tempting to try and teach such person, but the effort is wasted. One could argue that "such person drags other people down". But, convinced by what Emil and William said, I think one should better say that "some other people let themselves be dragged down". I guess there are ways of self-defense that allow one to keep a positive attitude, and that's better than to repulse someone. Cheers, Simon -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
