Tathagata Banerjee wrote: > hey, but those are *still* the primary aims of ilug-cal! at least, they > were so the last time i checked, which was, like, five minutes ago :-)
Where, But Oh! where *did* you "check" - five minutes ago? Pray tell _where_ these fine sentiments are inscribed for all and sundry to peruse. Also, pray tell where the procedures to add to, subtract from or otherwise modify same. A search of the ilug-cal.org web site yielded - nothing. Or do these qualify as "common law" matters - that which everybody inherently knows from nature? ***Isn't this the crux of the matter, that a list with the appearances of an open public forum is not subject to any openly stated, publicly available aims, regulations or proceedures - even several years after its formation?*** How many people have left this site in a huff after unknowingly violating one of these unstated rules and then being rudely censured? I personally know of one and there were references to previous cases. But those controversies never yielded any changes - whether through indifference of its members or otherwise, I know not. If the aims of this forum had been explicit in the beginning - perhaps I would never have started posting here in the first place - or else I would have known the limits and expectations upfront. Heck! I even check the ingredients list on a 50p toffee! Isn't the lack of explicit aims also the reason that the list is little more than a forum for trading, IMHO, endless, pointless ramblings about arcana and other sundry esoterica amongst a few old friends who deeply resent any up-start newbies? (e.g. last year when 3000 people died in a flash the best that old boys on his list could achieve was long winded inane discussions about how it would affect US encryption laws. US encryption laws? not the 3000 dead or the 30,000 that soon followed, not Indo/Pak repercussions. US encryption laws! - why should ilug-CAL care? Perhaps it expects to affect US legislation? ) What? Oh! What has the list achieved since its inception? Pray enumerate. What there is, on its defunct website (while TWO new websites rot on the sidelines), is mighty, mighty little for a city as large and purpotedly as intellectually gifted as Kolkata. And it is not through lack of funds - no one has bothered to seek in the past! It may not even be through the lack of participation - look at numbers who volunteered for the Fair (it was 10 confirmed, 5 maybes - before this war broke out). This is the city of little theater groups and little magazines - I cannot believe that there is no similar interest in OSS, in the bastion, if I may call it that, of the anti-capitalists. What has the list done to reach out and be known? I was in Kolkata for a year and a half, working w/ 2 local devlopers on a Linux project before I even heard of ilug-cal. The list has, after all, taken on a heavy mantle - that of representing the entire city simply by registering for that name and creating an open list on it no matter who did it. Tathagata Bannerjee stated that all but one founder member has left the city - I have a thought - Perhaps, the wrong people founded the list! Perhaps the list was their ticket to whereever they masnaged to run away to. Perhaps they should have been founding ilug-Sidney or ilug-LA or some such.(yes ilug-LA - they would be forming ilugs once they figured out that ulug(yes I know its is just lug) meetings have no seats for their brown bottoms - that too, is an unstated rule). -- In the end Tathagata Bannerjee may be right - there may be too few in this list who sympathize with the need for formalization - and that, for those who realize it, is the principle chord of something much bigger than our sad little list - the sad history of our country - our do-nothing nation. -- There, there - I had promised myself that I would not participate in any such "discussion" threads just a few hours ago - they are just a waste of time - yours and mine. but i have done so already. the trick, i suppose is to not read the messages in the first place . . . to end on a positive note - A group that regularly has a stall at the Book Fair may be willing to provide us space. The conversation was purely casual and I cannot hold them to anything. Still . . . I am continuing my efforts to get us to the book fair; I am also willing to step aside if my inclusion causes volunteers to drop out. But - trying to create and apply OSS for what Tathagata Banerjee in his ignorace calls "blah blah" is what I have been doing for the past few years at ENORMOUS expense to me and my family (as, at least, a couple luger knows :)), and what I still continue to do. Moreover, I shall do it through the agency of an open organization with clearly stated aims, rules and processes. This stipulation *may* bar it from being ilug-cal. As pksharma - the butt of jokes of several of you young-uns - has been saying for some time - DO SOMETHING !! - don't just jaw-jaw. Well, no more long-winded, irrelevant mails from me! Nothing that is not pertinant to practical matters of the Book Fair from me - for a while, atleast. so here goes . . . -- Raja Guha --------- -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/help/faq_list.html
