I hardly think that mentioning msg43's mailing list discussion is worth
calling it an "attack."
Distrowatch is all about popularity, Arch is constantly where it is and
thats good enough for a distro that releases rarier then most.
The reason for the minor debate I think is that people just don't think
or know enough about whats ahead. Does anyone really know what's
supposed to be in pacman 3.0 and how thats going? if it is? what other
parts of the distro are being improved on? I just don't find this
information out there. It's interesting that no one is talking about the
graphical Java based and GTK Based pacman builds. No one is talking
about having 2 instances of pacman running at once. Not enough people
know about what people are wanting to innovate for arch. All we have
are some simple "devland" updates in a newsletter.
Seems to me like there's not enough discussion about what matters
because people aren't being told about what matters.
Oh any by the way, the main wiki HowTos page needs a complete makeover.
cheers,
sepht
I really don't know how to write this message without actively
contributing to the problem I'm denouncing. I logged into my mail
today and read the attack on the newsletter, then logged into the
forum and read about Arch failing at distrowatch, and stopping gits
from selling your work for profit, then read the newsletter. This
after the rather interesting about liking peoples' online
personalities and a lot of political posts concerning AUR design, and
IRC or forum moderation.
I'm wondering where all this political discussion has come from. There
have always been dissenting opinions on the direction Arch should go,
often accompanied by constructive discussion that eventually improves
Arch. But lately, the debates are over what appear to be very minor
details, and yet everyone joins in the discussion whole-heartedly, as
if deciding this particular issue is going to affect the very future
of our distro!
There have been many vague references to Arch being a 'growing
community' and experiencing 'growing pains'. This explanation makes
perfect sense on the surface. But take a look at any forum or mailing
list thread that has become a hot topic in recent weeks. The majority
of the posts tend to be made by relatively long-standing members of
the community. Members who have contributed a lot and have gotten
along for a long time are now engaging in the silliest arguments. Its
not caused by new members wanting to change everything about Arch --
such posts have always been and still are quickly shot down.
I'm not a sociologist, but after pondering this issue for a while, and
then watching the ant infestation crawling across my floor, I
experienced a flash of insight.
We discuss all these minor issues to death because most of the major
issues have been addressed.
That's right. We're destroying our community with these (often
ridiculous) discussions because we don't have anything better to fix
or complain about!
An example, documentation: In the old days, people complained about
lack of documentation. When the wiki was created, the community
pitched in and created an amazing number of HOWTOs in a short amount
of time. That issue has been addressed, and with the new mature wiki
design, its a simple matter of maintenance.
Similarly with pacman, the kernels, dibble's kernel PKGBUILD, the
initscripts, our favourite live CD: Archie, and so on. None of these
things is perfect, of course, but all are maturing.
Yet we still look for issues to talk about. We appear to be a
garrulous lot who like to discuss. The problem is, we're discussing
such unimportant issues, and we're murdering them. We're fighting with
our friends over pennies.
I can't offer any resolution to this problem besides the obvious one
where everybody stops posting. How lonely is that? :-D I just wanted
to bring it to people's attention, I guess, so we stop blaming our
hypothetical 'growing community' for our problems (we're falling at
distrowatch, how can we be growing!?). I know this is going to prompt
a lot of discussion in itself, and I almost wish it wouldn't. But I
just couldn't keep shut. ;-) So perhaps I should promise, after all
this verbosity, not to respond to any replies.
Dusty
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