develooper Front page | perl.perl5.porters | Postings from February 2000

Re: validity of viewpoints [was Re: should "use byte" be "use bytes"?]

From:
Autarch
Date:
February 10, 2000 11:29
Subject:
Re: validity of viewpoints [was Re: should "use byte" be "use bytes"?]
Message ID:
Pine.LNX.4.10.10002101318410.17771-100000@urth.org
This is so insane.

Ok, I just joined the p5p list a few days back because I love perl and I'm
interested in reading about where it will go in the future. Theoretically
I may even have something to contribute.  Feel free to flame me for
posting before reading for a month, I'm sure someone will but ...


This is the most hostile mailing list I've ever been on.  I am extremely
hesitant to write this because I suspect that someone is going to have a
fit at me.  I swear that if I didn't know better I would suspect that this
list was largely populated by 13-17 year old boys.  In fact, it strongly
reminds me of my BBS'ing days back in high school.

I can't imagine that this hasn't been posted before but let me try to take
what is hopefully a novel tack and appeal to people's self-interest.

Theoretically, everyone on this list is on it because they really like
Perl and they want to see it grow even stronger (if you don't feel this
way, you're probably on the wrong list).  Let's take that as a given.  So
given that taken given, you all have a motivation for toning down the
hostility.

Frankly, the hostility level on this list made me consider unsubscribing
within the first day.  I can't imagine that I'm the only one who has felt
that way and I bet others have acted on this feeling.  Many others
probably read this list but have vowed never to post for fear of the type
of extreme mockery that seems to color a good chunk of the messages to
this list.

Given that, imagine what you all might have lost in potentially good
ideas.  I'm sure there are many intelligent, thoughtful people who could
make fabulous p5porters who will never ever contribute because of the
hostility on the list.  They're already lost. 

Next time you start to post, try this mental exercise:

Instead of concentrating on how 'right' you are, think about whether or
not your message is likely to scare away someone who might otherwise be
useful to you.  After all, we'd all like to be lazier and do less work.
One of the best ways to do that is to spread the work among a larger body
of skilled people.

Note that _not_ I'm targeting any one person here.  This is a fairly
pervasive problem not caused by any one person.  If you think I mean you,
then I probably do.  If you think I don't mean you, you may be right but
try and think about it anyway.  Don't take it personally.


-Dave

P.S. I'm sure that all of the men on the list have _very_ big penises and
all the women have _very_ big ovaries (is that the equivalent?).  There's
no need to try to prove it over and over again.



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