Sarcasm and making fun of other projects in loco team lists

[Fabian Rodriguez]

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(top posting to my original message)

Hi all,

The end result of the out-of-topic and troll messages we were having in
the ubuntu-co mailing list can be summarized as follows:

 - We had a few big threads about trolling and netiquette and witnessed
a few valuable members leave by themselves
 - The initiator of this was kicked out of the list, as this was not his
first time doing that and he replied to a public reminder with insults
and more hate mail.
 - There was an online meeting among admins, and we took the opportunity
to welcome a Spanish translation [1] of the Ubuntu lists etiquete [0]
and integrated that to our mailing list subscription process [2] - yes,
sadly we now have a process that is formal about "being nice".
 - We informed the list of our decisions
 - The list was (and still is) in moderation mode, including new
subcriptions. This has given some time to accept only relevant messages,
OT messages have been a minimum since then.

Emailing everyone privately wasn't an option, as a volunteer I couldn't
send email to the 50+ people that were replying and escalating the tone
in every email. However several public reminders were sent, which in
turn also resulted in other similar hate mail.

This was a repeating problem (within this list's context) and as
expected it generated a *lot* of noise.

As a member of the FSF I love to have a field day with all things
Microsoft, but I tend to agree more with Aaron's point of view than
Jan's. I appreciate you passion, Jan, and I somewhate share it, but I
get better results without any f words. Your mileage may vary.

To Jonathan, I never said all our community was like this, please read
again carefully - I guess the current context of other events may have
implied that. In fact I find it's quite the contrary, which also means
when it happens, it's more visible (IMO).

Thanks for everyone's help and comments about this, I learned a few
things in the process.

Cheers,

Fabian

[0] http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/mailinglists/etiquette
[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ColombianTeam/Etiqueta_Lista_Correos
[2] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-co


Fabian Rodriguez wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> I am one of the admins of the loco team list for Ubuntu Colombia.
> 
> I deeply resent any sarcasm and bad mouthing of other operating systems
> and Linux distributions, particularly any references to them like
> Micro$oft. I strongly believe that's against our CoC and it sets the
> mood for other non-constructive comments and trolls.
> 
> I've found whenever such discussion is allowed, over time it escalates
> into more, and trolling ensues which generates a lot of noise and people
> unsubscribe quickly when they see that.
> 
> I've replied with public friendly reminders and usually it dies off, but
> the size of our community is now such that this is not working. We have
>  a link to the Code of Conduct in each email footer, but it's mostly
> ignored.
> 
> Short of limiting subscriptions, moderating and kicking out the "bad
> apples", what other suggestions would loco teams have about this ?
> 
> Or maybe I should just shut up and watch the thing implode. Who know, it
> may even take care of itself somehow. Teenage crisis ? :)
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Fabian
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