[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > 1) Don't respond to mail when you're already in a poor mood.
Always good advice. I wish I followed it more, but I do queue outgoing messages in my mailer by default, so I normally have a bit of cooling-off time. > 2) In fact, don't respond to mail at all if you're going to be expressing > your opinion, unless you've got some homies on the Debian list who will > "back" you. I'd suggest that isn't true, but it helps to have a thick skin and be just as opinionated back. > 4) Don't make any requests unless you can help to carry them out yourself. > (By that logic, I can't report bugs in Apache, since I can't fix them, > and I shouldn't request documentation unless I have the time to > write it). There's a difference between making requests and acting "entitled" to help. This whole thing started because of a comment that said, in essence, "Documentation is an easily-correctable problem, so go out and fix it or you're all a bunch of elitists." We _all_ know there could be better documentation. We _all_ have been hearing about it for what, over six years in my case?[1] After a while, even the most patient people will get a bit testy at hearing the same demands over and over again. Good documentation isn't easy. Ask the people at the LDP about it, who have been working on good documentation longer than I've been using Linux. It's hard. There's insane amounts of stuff to document, programs often do the same thing different ways for "historical reasons", and things change all the time. It's hard work, and having someone come around and say "Come on guys, it's easy, you must just not care enough" is infuriating. Right now, Linux is not for everyone. That's a simple fact. If you[2] can't pick things up from existing resources[3] for whatever reason, you should probably use something else. This isn't an attack! It's an acknowledgment that not everyone may have the time or inclination to deal with Linux in its current form, and no amount of effort will make Linux suitable overnight. Come back in a year or two... Linux will still be around, and things may have gotten better. If I were an illustrator, I probably wouldn't waste my time trying to do my work on Linux. If I were editing movies digitally, I'd probably use something else right now. This isn't an attitude of 'You're dumb or lazy or both'. It's an attitude of "Here's the situation as it stands, and only you know what's best for you." > All I really wanted to say with my original post was, "give this guy a break, > and at least explain things nicely to him". I think Karsten tried. Kevin came in ranting, Karsten tried to put things in perspective (as I did above) and Kevin just kept on ranting.... Footnotes: [1] No DSW intended, just illustrating that this isn't a new problem. [2] Not implying _you_ specifically, this is a generic you. [3] Books, man pages, HOWTOs, Deja, lists, etc -- Alan Shutko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - In a variety of flavors! Skydiver: A guy whose talks fall flat...
