Aggressive language on python-list

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:25:38 -0700, alex23 wrote:

> I really don't get people who feel they need to share their opinion when
> that opinion is that other people shouldn't share theirs.

+1 QOTW

It makes me laugh when newcomers to this group stick their head up to 
chastise us for arguing about the culture of this group. The irony is 
that that is *precisely* what they too are doing.

In an ideal world, we'd all agree on what counts as acceptable behaviour, 
and stick to it, and discuss nothing but Python coding problems. But we 
don't live in an idea world, and there are disagreements and people 
behaving badly, and arguments about such, and meta-arguments about the 
arguments.

Welcome to humanity.

And more importantly, welcome to democracy -- this is not a dictatorship, 
there is no Supreme Glorious Leader who decides what is on- and off-
topic, no Thought Police to ban you for straying from the straight and 
narrow of what is allowed. And thank goodness for that. I've been on 
lists that do have such policies, and they tend to give lousy advice 
badly and have a culture of group-think.

Sure, it's frustrating to have to hit delete on a bunch of posts you 
don't care about. But that's true regardless of the topic or the list. 
Last night I deleted about 300 emails about designing a new asynchronous 
library that I had no desire to take part in. Did I post an angry screed 
calling it BS? No I did not, because I'm aware that even if I'm not 
interested in it, it is a part of Python culture and *somebody* needs to 
deal with it. I'm just glad its not me.



-- 
Steven