Comments inline.
I think it's important to keep things in perspective, and not to
overreact.
If you were treated this way consistently by someone, and the community defended that person rather than calling them out on their poor behavior,
would
you continue to volunteer? Do you expect staff to continue working under
the
same conditions?
Best case you'll get is staff members that tune out the jerks. Of course,
when
the prevailing culture breeds this type of behavior, you'll get lots of
staff
tuning out lots of jerks. It isn't a viable community.
Before I begin with anything else, let me say that I am not defending anyone here. This message is meant to state an honest opinion on a matter that will likely affect all of us on this mailing list due to its nature, and the nature of this discussion.
With that in mind. I do agree that this entire thing has gotten out of perspective. While I don't agree with the actions that prompted this (sorry MZ I can't back you up here, although I do get where you're coming from), I also think that the fact that I even felt the need to write this email, or for that matter write this email in the careful fashion I am doing it in, shows that the situation has been blown out of perspective.
What seems to have happened here, is that one action has broken many (all?) links to Mailman archives. That, in my book, is a mess. The question was, to that someone who made the mess, what his plan was to
clean
it up.
Again with the phrasing. Cut it out.
Agreed. I'm not sure if anyone else read the previously linked to article on not being a dick, but it actually talks about this. Just because something is right, does not make it not dickish.
Quick Note: I've not been on the list for long enough to know whether or not MZ is consistantly a dick, but I tend to assume good faith in that he was probably just being a dick this time. Same thing with Michel, who for the most part did not post a dickish message and in fact I would go so far as to say that Michel probably would rather see this whole discussion done and overwith so we can get back to the good stuff than anything else. I could be wrong, but that was the impression his email gave me at least.
You realize that Daniel is the only person who's deleted posts that has
even
given the slightest care to the fact that the links break, right? This
happens
all the time and until today we just broke the links.
If you really want to fix this problem, fix mailman, or write a sane
system.
Although I agree that this is probably the direction we need to head, right now our problem is the links as they are. When your car breaks down you don't say, "If you really want to fix this problem, design a new car." Instead you go to the repair shop, get your car fixed so you can move on with your life, and if the car has been consistantly an issue for a while now, after it is fixed you go about designing a new car (assuming you have the skill set required to do so).
With that in mind. I agree that Daniel should be commended for his work. I also think that a mess was made and needs cleaned up. I ''also'' think that a better system needs to be implemented or designed to keep this from happening again. So in this regard I think everyone is right.
What should happen right now is *cleaning up the mess*. The more time is spent in butthurt and drama, the more *new* mess there is to clean up, once the old mess is cleaned up.
This thread is about the culture of aggressive behavior that we breed and accept. I'm tired of accepting it. As I called out MZ, I'm going to call
you
out too. Your behavior in this post is unacceptable.
I've no comment here. That is your personal opinion and I have no place intruding on it.
As far as I can see the easiest wat to go about this, is to dig up backups, salt the messages that originally needed to be "deleted" with spaces or *** or whatever (and add a note to the effect of "this was done because of *reason*), and then rebuild the archives so the permalinks are not broken anymore.
And then go in and fix whatever permalinks were fixed in the meantime.
This needs to happen fast. Once it's been done, there's all the time in the world for recriminations and drama and new guidelines and rules of conduct and whatnot.
Why does this matter so much? This is like the 27637862487 time that links
have
been broken due to the exact same action. It isn't the end of the world.
It
would be ideal if it was repaired, but it's not a dire emergency.
- Ryan
Agreed. The issue is not time senstative, although it would be better to be fixed sooner than later. Its more like you lost your favourite book than you lost your rent money. The world won't end from this problem, but it will make things inconvient for others down the line. Would a medium priority perhaps be a good compromise?
Also I think that Michel's solution to fix the problem is a good idea. I can't see any downsides to restoring a backup, blanking the messages, and then fixing the previously fixed links. With that in mind, I wouldn't blame Daniel if he didn't want to do it. I know I wouldn't want to go through that effort if I found myself caught in the middle of this.
Hopefully all of these issues can be solved in a relaxed, calm, and effective manner. I would like to re-iterate that this post is not meant to offend, blame, or condemn anyone. Furthermore this post is not meant to be dickish and I appologise ahead of time if it is, or anyone construes it as such. I am merely attempting to act as an uninterested third party, as I have no real interest in the mailing list archive, nor do I really know Daniel; Michel; or Ryan, who can help mediate the situation.
Sorry for the long email all.
Thank you, Derric Atzrott Computer Specialist Alizee Pathology