anti posts

[AlienHealer]

Ok, so most prolly by now know I cannot stand these posts that are simply put up to attack distro's, operating systems, desktop environments. They are pointless in my view, and just fragment the linux community, they also make the linux community look rather childish from the outside.

Yes it is just a small minority, yes it happen elsewhere, yes other os's also have their childish fanboys attacking linux, apple, etc, but are the posts needed, or should they be trashed. Does it give any value to the opensuse community to have these posts or does it side track and discourage people from other distro's/os from partaking in this distro when they come across it? Can OpenSUSE become more attractive by being the positive distro? And remember this forum is the community face of opensuse.

[andrewd18]

1. People are entitled to their opinions. A lot of people switch to Linux because they are completely fed up with Microsoft, and many people switch between Linuxes because they are completely fed up with Distribution X. They are going to dislike things, sometimes vehemently, and sometimes they are going to disagree with you. They are, however, entitled to their opinion, as wrong or childish as you might think it is.

Admittedly, a lot of rational discussions become flame fests after people stop calmly discussing the issues and start attacking each other over a simple software preference. When that happens, I think the best thing to do is agree to disagree, disregard any personal attacks they make on you, and leave the thread alone for a day or two. By doing so, you take the high road by not slinging mud back, and you give both yourself and the other poster time to cool down.

Originally Posted by AlienHealer

are the posts needed, or should they be trashed.

2. The openSUSE Forums have had a history not censoring or deleting posts. If the moderators or administrators see a personality conflict or emotional dispute, they will step in and take action, but I haven't seen them delete or censor users' posts.

Originally Posted by AlienHealer

And remember this forum is the community face of opensuse.

3. This forum is a face of openSUSE, but not the face. Many members of the openSUSE community only use the mailing lists or IRC and never touch the forum at all. In regards to putting on a unified face for the community, see #1.

[kgroneman]

I more or less agree with AlienHealer's post....an I more or less agree
with Andrewd18's post.

Do I think some posts bashing other distros and other companies and
other operating systems are kind of pointless and distracting?...yes.
Do I think they should be censured?....No.

Do I realize that AlienHealer was just making a well intentioned, and
spot on (IMHO) plea?....Yes.

There was a study done at Yale where they determined that diversity
trumps knowledge in most cases. A group of varied opinion, but lower
knowledge folks assigned a task will generally come up with better
results than a group of like minded higher knowledge folks.

FWIW

--
Kim (11/26/2008 3:15:07 PM Mountain)

[Sagemta]

Please don't forget Freedom Of Speech for both good & ill goes both ways.

[Cryovac]

Originally Posted by kgroneman

There was a study done at Yale where they determined that diversity trumps knowledge in most cases. A group of varied opinion, but lower knowledge folks assigned a task will generally come up with better results than a group of like minded higher knowledge folks.

Yale qualifies as "a group of like minded higher knowledge folks" so I would not place as much faith their results either.

[AlienHealer]

Because you have the right to do something doesn't mean you should

In some places you have the right to put a sheet over your head and go preach racism, but you should have the maturity to know not to. You have the right to not like things, but you should have the maturity to have respect for those things and not bleat on about it, like so often happens in the linux community. IT gets very tired. The same old people with the same old anti stick up their bum rattling on

Yes there are mailing lists, but for the majority of new people the forum is the face of the community, and the mailing lists seem to hold more experienced people than new people. So the forum is in reality the first port of entry for people into the opensuse community.

I personal think it is obvious from a few threads that people are getting tired of these anti posts. This community, your life is yours to create. It's not about censoring people, it's about expecting people to have more respect, to expecting them to have more maturity. I find the posts about microsoft, ubuntu etc, to be childish. We should strive for the best, not limit ourselves and that is what these anti posts do, limit and fracture, they don't put the best foot forward.

We can continue to have a fractured linux community where people argue over distro's, argue over desktops, or people can finally realise these stupid things are fracturing the community, and start putting your best foot forward and showing other communities in linux that it is time to unite as one, and be positive. Negativity does not build a community, it destroys it.

[buckesfeld]

* AlienHealer wrote, On 11/27/2008 04:06 AM:

> We can continue to have a fractured linux community where people argue
> over distro's, argue over desktops, or people can finally realise these
> stupid things are fracturing the community, and start putting your best
> foot forward and showing other communities in linux that it is time to
> unite as one, and be positive. Negativity does not build a community,
> it destroys it.

Realize that open source software is a replacement for religion or a form of political activism for many people. And just like with religion or politics, you have a certain percentage of extremists. I'm still learning to live with it, and it is really hard sometimes, because it makes me terribly tired.

Uwe

[freedguy]

AlienHealer, you seem to have caught Lets-Not-Fight syndrome. You've been putting the same points on other threads (eg. this thread) which IMHO is seriously against Freedom Of Speech.

[dale14846]

The solution is simple take down the chit chat and soapbox forums. Oh yeah and maybe
the survey/polls forum too. NOT

I use OpenSuse because of things that Fedora, Ubantu and Microsoft lack and sometimes I would like to spout off

the simler solution is to just stay away from the afore mentioned forums. But don't try to muzzle me.

[Cryovac]

"Freedom of Speech"™ can _always_ be respectful. Freedom of anything does not imply the right to demean or belittle another person. That is just simple cowardice.