[CentOS] OT: Top Posting

[Steve Huff]

On May 16, 2008, at 11:14 AM, Carol Anne Ogdin wrote:

> Your opinions are louder than your putative experience.   
> Unfortunately, in
> 51 years in the computer industry, I've sometimes had to cope with  
> behaviors
> like yours.  It still makes me sad to experience such unhappy  
> people who
> think that attack is the best way to enrich a collaboration.

hmm.  perhaps we should put some of that 51 years of experience to  
use in evaluating this particular situation?  while i can't see  
inside your head, i can refer to the policies you yourself have  
published (http://www.deepwoods.com/transform/pubs/DDB.htm).

	The "core" participants can be identified by seeing how many other  
people
	("core" or not) refer to them by name.  The named people are the  
"core" group.
	Make sure you remain sensitive to their concerns, for they  
implicitly speak
	for the entire population of participants.

by any definition, Karanbir is one of the core participants of this  
forum and of the CentOS project.  have you lurked here a while?  if  
so, i'm surprised you don't know this.  on the CentOS website, please  
check Information->The CentOS Team->Members and see if some of those  
names look familiar.  please treat him with the respect he is due.

	If the boundaries are not clearly established, differing  
expectations will
	ensure that somebody feels the boundaries have been crossed. That's  
why it's
	important to have some published guidelines for behavior.

the CentOS project does, in fact, have such published guidelines for  
mailing lists, available here:

http://www.centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=16

(that's Support->Mailing Lists off the main page).  issues concerning  
posting and quoting are covered there, quite unambiguously.  please  
respect the published guidelines of this forum, *as you yourself  
recommend*.

	Of course, the newcomer might immediately and inadvertently violate  
some
	local cultural norms, sort of like walking through the flower bed on  
the
	way to the front door.  In this case, it's usually best to take the  
process
	of new party education off-line, into e-mail.  Chastising people in  
public
	for not reading the published guidelines, or for doing something  
they shouldn't
	almost guarantees they'll never participate again.

ok, make up your mind; which do you want to be?  are you a "tentative  
participant" who doesn't know how to behave and needs to be  
acculturated to this forum's norms, or are you a seasoned  
professional with 117,000 messages worth of experience in community- 
building?  if you're the first, please stop telling everyone else how  
to behave; if you're the second, please stop making newbie mistakes,  
since you should know better.

thank you.

-steve
--
If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an  
improbable fiction. - Fabian, Twelfth Night, III,v