Community (A Modest Proposal)

[Ben Finney]

Jack Diederich <jackdied at gmail.com> writes:

> In various threads you haven't met the minimum qualifications to be
> taken seriously: you have contributed no code, don't even bother to
> use something that looks like a real name, and continually demand that
> volunteers (which we all are) write code to fulfill your speculative
> needs.

I'll agree with all the above except the “not look like a real name”
part.

I have no objection to people using pseudonyms; I can't reasonably
expect that I know whether someone's name is real or pseudonymous, and
it would be unfair of me to prejudge on that basis.

What social discourse requires of us, though, is that we at least
demonstrate an effort to differentiate ourselves in public from others
who might pick the same identity (on which basis an identity of “r”
fails), and that we don't expect to be taken seriously when beginning to
use a new persona (on which basis suddenly switching to an identiy of
“rantingrick” fails).

Consistently using the *same* identity in our discourse, with a good
level of confidence that it's distinct from other identities out there,
is needed in order for reputation and trust to be earned.

> If-it-walks-like-a-troll-and-smells-like-a-troll-it's-a-troll-ly,

Thanks for the well-worded response.

-- 
 \        “The reason we come up with new versions is not to fix bugs. |
  `\                     It's absolutely not.” —Bill Gates, 1995-10-23 |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney