Sounder mailing list etiquette and future direction

[Michael Haney]

I think the biggest issue on Sounder are the elitists who show little
consideration towards others.  The whole argument over the Reply-To
issue is perhaps the best example.  It is totally unreasonable to tell
people to use a different email client than the one they are familiar
and comfortable with just to please someone else.  Using Reply-To
would allow users to continue sing their favorite email client and
would not impact anyone else adversely.  I won't name names but we
have several such people here who show little consideration towards
others, and have demonstrated some form of animosity towards
"newbies".

Their attitude is completely incompatible with the tenants upon which
Ubuntu was founded.  Ubuntu isn't a Linux distribution just for
elitists and super-geeks.  Its a Linux distribution made for the
Average Jane/Joe on the street who knows very little about computers,
who probably knows enough to browse the web and check email and little
else.  I believe these elements are giving the Ubuntu community a bad
name and are undermining the efforts of Ubuntu Advocates like myself
who are trying to get inexperienced users to embrace Linux without
being afraid of it.

This problem extends far beyond Sounder.  It also effects the Ubuntu
Users Support list ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com.  There are elements
there who have shown open disdain towards "newbies".  Again, I won't
name names but its been a problem there since I joined.  Under the
tenants upon which Ubuntu was founded this is completely unacceptable
behavior and undermines the efforts of Canonical and the rest of the
community.  It perpetuates the myth that ALL Linux Users are
self-centered, short-tempered elitists.  This simply isn't true but in
doing nothing to fix the situation we've let things get out of hand.

The elitists, the super-geeks of Linux community have a right to be
here just as much as the "newbies" and those like me or in between and
still learning.  But, no one group should hold dominance over the
other, and in

I wouldn't like to see Sounder go away.  The idea of a forum for the
free unrestrained exchange of ideas and opinions reflects the very
core of the Free Libre Open Source Software movement.  But, allow
things to stay as they are is just as bad.  Something needs to be
done, but I'm not entirely sure what can be done without shattering
the spirit of the Sounder group's original mission.  Its a conundrum.

I first tried Linux back in the late 90's.  It was an a version of Red
Hat on an old Packard Bell running on an AMD K6/2 processor.  Even in
this early stage I saw the awesome potential Linux had.  Years later
when I tried Ubuntu for the first time, 7.04 I believe, I was
impressed by how much has changed and all of the improvements that
were made.  I use 9.10 now, for a time I used Linux Mint 7, but
decided to go back when the new release came out.  So far I'm
impressed, I've heard horror stories about problems with this release
but no new operating system release is perfect in the beginning.  The
Ubuntu Community needs to set a good example, to show the world that
Linux isn't just for super-geeks but can be for regular people too.
This latest release, 9.10, has its issues but overall its the most
stable Ubuntu release I've tried thus far.  There's still the issue of
no GUI for choosing what monitor I'm using, which means I have to hack
my xorg.conf file to make it work right, but beyond that everything
functions.  Even my printer works without having to install any
additional software.  This is how the Ubuntu Community should be, open
and accessible to anymore whether you're a super-geek, a very green
newbie who just switched from Windows, or someone like me who made the
switch and is still learning.

-- 
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch at gmail.com
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