The purpose of this list is to try to find common ground between Debian and the FSF, and try to improve relations. I've just read the archives of this list so far, and there have been a numer of dogmatic statements (on both sides) which are in danger of making that very difficult.
What I would like to see is members of Debian and FSF treat each other like allies. Treating someone as an ally means focusing on areas of agreement, not disagreement. It means seeing things from one's allies' point of view. When you have a disagreement with an ally, it means not presenting arguments that aren't going to be convincing to the ally. If you can't convince your ally on some point then the right thing to do is not to browbeat them harder. The right thing to do is to agree to differ, and move onto a topic where cooperation is possible. If you're not sure how your ally will react then you need to ask them, respectfully, whether (for example) they are doing some thing deliberately, and whether it might be acceptable to do something different. And, finally, statements that "my side will never agree to X" are generally unhelpful. Particularly if they come from people without the authority to say so. Thanks, Ian. _______________________________________________ Fsf-collab-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/fsf-collab-discuss
