RFC: #ubuntu op misuse or not?

[Rohan Dhruva]

Hello Jo-Erlend,

Thank you for your response. Please see my thoughts inline.


On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 3:37 AM, Jo-Erlend Schinstad
<joerlend.schinstad at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Rohan.
>
> I read your email and about 75% of the first irc-logs from -ops. At that point, the discussion was in a loop and I saw no reason to read any further. I'm not part of the IRC team and that I have no particularly close relationship with any of the participants. I have been around the Ubuntu community for a while, and I'm one of those kids who's been around since before the internet and IRC. I know the Ubuntu community and how IRC works and I honestly believe myself to be completely unbiased in this case.
>
> I didn't see what happened in #Ubuntu, but my understanding was that you made some kind of comment about the offtopic discussion, were asked to stop and did stop. That's great. However, your behaviour in the ops-channel was completely unacceptable and to my eyes, it seemed to grow in intensity. You were becoming more abusive, more adversarial and seemed to be stuck in the issue, causing a repetitive cycle of accusation and response. That's not constructive and it's not welcome in Ubuntu channels. I think it was a good choice to make sure you didn't take that into the #Ubuntu channel. I don't consider a ban to be a penalty, but a tool that is used to keep a channel productive.
>

This sounds like you looking at only one part of the picture.
Obviously I was more hostile after a ban was instated without any kind
of evidence to support the claim that I would disrupt the main
channel. That is an expected reaction to provocation.

You say that that the ops were calm and mature, which is again biased
-- the op in question was drawing conclusions of being insulted by
World War II, Nazi and Hitler associations, when any rational person
can see that there were none. It is easy to see that this was what
riled him up and actually caused the ban. The moment personal feelings
enter an op decision, in my opinion, you have failed as an op.

To draw an analogy, if you have an argument with another person, would
go to that person's house and change the locks? That's how irrational
the ban seems to me.

Inasmuch as keeping the channel productive, banning people for a joke
or two does more to create a hostile environment than anything else.

> You asked for comments, so here's mine. I saw no ops misuse or personal agendas at all. They were being calm and mature and did exactly what they're supposed to. In my opinion, they were right, you were wrong and I suggest you simply go do something else for a while and get your mind on other things. I'm sure you'll be welcome when the anger and frustration subsides.
>

Unfortunately, this kind of "go get a life" response is exactly the
kind of insulting hostility I experienced in the channel, and this
last paragraph of the email does nothing but propagate it. I requested
comments, not the same denigration that was propagated by the
#ubuntu-ops community.

> Jo-Erlend
>
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>

Cheers,
Rohan

-- 
Rohan Dhruva