An Appeal for Help and a Fair Hearing

Tue Nov 7 00:54:05 UTC 2006

If you are not prepared to accept "nazi" as a bad word, then perhaps you
are not prepared to participate in a community which spans the globe.
Whether you think it's offensive or not, the fact is, people are
offended by it. Period.

Also, the community council is not some bureaucracy run by "so-called
OPs". The community council is composed of veteran Ubuntu/Debian
hackers/developers/community members, as well as Mark Shuttleworth
himself. I agree that the proper procedure for resolving this issue
would've been approaching the people in #ubuntu-ops nicely, and if that
had failed, bringing it to the attention of the community council.

On Mon, 2006-11-06 at 15:12 -0800, rbil wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-06-11 at 23:06 +0100, Dennis Kaarsemaker wrote:
> > On ma, 2006-11-06 at 12:23 -0800, rbil wrote:
> > 
> > > To Whom It May Concern:
> > > Rene Bilodeau
> > 
> > Rene,
> > 
> > You're both overreacting and addressing the wrong people. 
> 
> Well you failed to answer my queries that was sent directly to you. Glad
> that I finally got your attention! :-) I think it was YOU that
> overreacted in the first place and that will be obvious to anyone that
> reads the record.
> 
> > Canonical does
> > not handle conflicts in the Ubuntu community. 
> 
> We will see, won't we? And if that is the case, why did you bother to
> send a copy of your email message to them? 
> 
> When it involves such serious unprincipled behaviour as what I witnessed
> last night, Canonical better get involved if they want to keep their
> distro and its community at all legitimate in the eyes of the broader
> progressive community. So far, no one that I've communicated with can
> believe how I've been treated by you OPs. The actions by the OPs has
> been characterized as being like you think you belong to a secret
> society. Another person wondered if a a super-secret decoder spy ring
> was required to actually get the OPs to respond.
> 
> > That's up to the IRC and
> > community councils.
> > 
> Sorry, but I have no idea what the IRC council is and am not interested
> in getting tangled up in some bureaucracy run by these so-called OPs. I
> asked you DIRECTLY and you refused to respond until I went public. I'm
> still waiting for you to answer my first email query I sent you as
> recorded on that web page of events. If you have a reading comprehension
> problem, maybe one of your fellow OPs can help you to understand my
> simple enquiry? But I'll try it again, with the hopes that you'll be
> able to get your nose out of your dictionary of bad words and be able to
> read, understand and answer 2 simple questions:
> 
> 1) How long can I expect to be banned from the #ubuntu irc channel?
> 
> 2) If it is a permanent thing, is there any recourse for appeal?
> 
> 
> > As was explained to you, calling people nazis will get you banned from
> > IRC channel. 
> 
> Please tell me why I had to experience 2 bannings BEFORE that point was
> ever told to me? Please send me a link to where it stipulates what "bad
> words" can't be used within a ubuntu channel. I have no problem
> complying with an organization's requirements, provided I have an
> opportunity to know before hand what is required to comply and can be
> convinced that the "rules" make any logical sense. I'm certainly not
> prepared to accept that a word like "nazi", which Nelson Mandela
> probably used a million times in his life, is a "bad word" in and of
> itself. So what secret society within the ubuntu community builds this
> dictionary of bad words and where is this dictionary published so that
> all members of the community can be forewarned about what naughty words
> are disallowed by the so-called OPs?
> 
> 
> > Continuing to call people nazis after several warnings will
> > only extend the bans.
> > 
> Sorry, but you're stretching the truth here. I hope this isn't a common
> tendency that comes from having the title OP, because it's starting to
> look like that is the case. 
> 
> I got banned twice without any reasons were given. It wasn't until
> getting into that last channel that I finally was told that the use of
> the word "nazi" is what got me banned. So quit lying. The logs are
> there. Now what are you going to do about this silliness? 
> 
> 
> > If you want to discuss this further, please do so on the ubuntu-irc list
> > where all the operators read.
> 
> You can at least furnish me with how to join this list. Then I'll
> consider whether I want to carry out further discussions behind closed
> doors with the exalted ones, such as yourself.
> 
> I have nothing to hide about the facts in this matter. I hope you can
> say the same.
> 
> But again, thank you for at least finally responding. But when you
> finally answer my questions, I might be more satisfied.
> 
> Cheers,
> Rene
> 
> PS. All communications will be on the public record for the good of the
> whole community.
> 
> cc:
> Canadian Ubuntu Users mailing list
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Dave Sullivan
dave at dave-sullivan.com
www.dave-sullivan.com