Fw: [Mailman-Users] Re: The Password Feature.

[Chuq Von Rospach]

At 6:25 PM -0400 10/2/00, Gary Wilson wrote:

>I am not threatening. The developers may want to know why users are leaving.
>They probably care.

they care, but look at it from the other side. People who work as 
volunteers on ANY project get a lot of "I want this fixed, and you 
have to do it" stuff. It's not just open source, it's not 
programming, it's any volunteer organization. Lots of chiefs, few 
indians.

So anyone involved in these things tends to both get a thick skin, 
and also a little sensitive, when they run into things that can be 
interpreted that way. Whether or not it's intended that way.

it's easy to be misinterpreted on the net, since so many 
communication cues are missing or muddled (that's been a long, long 
research area of mine, trying to understand how to deal with the 
limitations of the online world). You need to be careful to frame 
what you say properly, and understanding when it's not....

And... We're *all* developers of mailman, really. Some are just more 
active than others.

>Most open source software developers I've worked with like to get feedback.

Yes, but not all feedback is created equal. It helps to frame things 
in constructive ways, and whether it's intended or not, "do this or 
I'm leaving" isn't really constructive. It *does* come across as 
threatening, although to be honest, my response was "and I care for 
what reason?" -- because the other nice thing about open source is 
that a given software package doesn't have to pretend to be 
everything for everyone. Rather than try to solve every problem with 
mediocrity, mailman can solve a certain set of problems exceptionally 
well, and if it doesn't solve your set of problems, there are other 
options. Or you can write one! The joys of no monopolies, no?

>Your comments indicate to me that at best your experience with mail lists is
>limited.

well, mine goes back 20 years, and I currently have a number of MLM's 
that are 100% my code in production. And I reacted the same way, 
Gary. I just dealt with it differently. I think what you said 
probably wasn't what you intended, but I don't think the 
interpretation was too out of line.

-- 
Chuq Von Rospach - Plaidworks Consulting (mailto:chuqui at plaidworks.com)
Apple Mail List Gnome (mailto:chuq at apple.com)

You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die.