[Foundation-l] Wikimedia main office

[Ray Saintonge]

Gregory Maxwell wrote:

>On 5/26/06, Delirium <delirium at hackish.org> wrote:
>[snip]
>  
>
>>I don't find IRC (or "chat" generally) a useful or efficient means of
>>communication.  Email gives enough space that people can look up
>>sources, consider their positions and arguments, read other material if
>>necessary, and then respond.  IRC is a mixture of off-the-cuff and
>>prepared remarks, broken up into small bits with a lot of asides and
>>chit-chat that you have to sit through in real time.
>>    
>>
>[snip]
>
>IRC's time constraints, is by large, a primary factor in its
>attractiveness. It acts as a great time equalizer, preventing kooks
>with unlimited time to prepare their rants from monopolizing the
>fourm. Actions are what counts, not how long you can make your
>argument.
>
So now people who take time to consider their answers are kooks 
preparing rants.

>If someone were to propose such discussions happen on a mailinglist
>with a limit of ~100 words per person/day, then I'd find that
>agreeable. If you can't make your point in a small space you either
>haven't thought about it enough or it's just not a good idea. Brevity
>also helps non-native English speakers understand.
>
I'm not opposed to brevity and concise answers, but a comment that is 
both brief and effective can take longer to draft than a long sloppy one.

Ec