On Sat, Aug 07, 2021 at 10:02:36AM -0400, Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside wrote: > Hi, > > On 2021-08-07 9:31 a.m., Greg Wooledge wrote: > > On Sat, Aug 07, 2021 at 11:56:52AM +0100, Brian wrote: > >> On Fri 06 Aug 2021 at 19:11:48 -0400, Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside > >> wrote: > >> > >> [...] > >> > >>> It's only required that people believe you did something for them to act > >>> like you did it. > >> > >> Indeed. Disseminate an unsubstantiated rumour (as in this thread) and > >> it's not long before the lynch mob hits the streets. > > > > I would never have blocked "Gunnar" based on an accusation that he > > was trolling. > > > > I blocked him after he confessed that he was trolling.
Personally blocking people / adding them to your "I'll ignore this person when I see them" is fine. [The old "Congratulations, you have found your way into my killfile. *PLONK* - type message.] Accusing people of trolling is generally not helpful in any way. > > > I think that the line that was crossed simply mandate that he gets > ignored by now. > I did so with the last message he sent me yesterday (and posted on the > list). Was a bunch of hard to follow series of sentence. But this > confirm that it seems to be a choice done on having incomprehensible > messages and loose talk, because he did write some clear and well > written message. I think that this person had difficulties in explaining themselves. That made it annoying / frustrating to see no progress. We all threw in effort and it didn't seem to be going very far. I'm not going to speculate whther that difficulty was accidental / deliberate to wastte our time. > > I feel that many person cherry pick one message, like the one I wrote > and got out of context, talking about a Lynch mob. > > Often when someone ask for help, we'll answer back that there's > information missing so we can answer properly. > Example, the person say > *I can't start X11* > And we'll ask > What version of Debian are you running ? > What are the outputs ? Logs ? > What's your graphic card / GPU ? > etc... > See also why I picked some elements from Greg's list / David's message to put into the monthly FAQ messsage. It now has a section on how to ask good questions and read the answers. Thanks, list, for reminding me and making me amend the mail. > Why do we do so ? > So our answer is relevant. > > Same rules apply when giving comment, if you want to have it relevant > then look at the whole story. > Or you'll only get a part and go off track. This has been a particularly frustrating thread and hard to follow in general. > And it's exactly what happened here. > We got someone who add a sentence relating to a lynch mob. Where it > wasn't the case in no way. And those are the same person that are unable > to justify what they say, but wanna benefit from free speech to add a point. > > *Dider*: There's some similarities between this dude and two others troller. > *Dude*: You have no proof it's me > *Dude*: You have no proof it's me... I post someone's Passport ID page. > *Me*: Posting a passport id page is a criminal offense in most countries > AND doesn't proof much, except maybe that you'd be dumb to post your own. > *Greg* says : That's a for of guilt admission, not saying "I didn't do > it" but saying "No proof". > *Me* : Exactly, it's not a court of law here. So it's not about proof > but about what will people get from what you say. > *and now the best* > *Irrelevant writer* : This is a acting mob looking for a lynch. > > I'd start to also call this some strange form of trolling. It's not straightforward to make this a useful list where people feel welcome and able to raise issues. At the risk of sounding very "pink and fluffy": many of the people who appear here are not familiar with mailing lists at all. We need to look at everyone "with kind eyes" to some extent unless they are abruptly hostile and to give people the benefit of the doubt. One way to deal with people being difficult is to report the issue to the Community Team. Full disclosure: I'm part of the Community Team as is Steve Mcintyre who pops up here occasionally. The team will normally talk it over, decide what action to take and carry it out. That can be just an email off list to the person being difficult, a recommendation to block someone to go to the listmasters - anything seen as appropriate. Another way - which is quicker and easier in some ways - is to choose to ignore them for the sake of your own peace of mind. Not every post has to be replied to. Not everything demands a response about the character of the poster: even if it does, waiting a couple of hours to reply may always be a good idea. Others may post in the meantime and you may find that you no longer lead to post. All the very best to all, as ever, Andy Cater > -- > Polyna-Maude R.-Summerside > -Be smart, Be wise, Support opensource development > [Copied also to Community Team mail alias for their reference].
