I actually haven't stated that the LUAU operation is lousy. What I have
said is that the CLUE group doesn't suffer from these petty
disagreements over how and what to post. Basically there is free and
open discussion, a monthly meeting which almost always has a different
person doing the presenting. I gave a presentation there myself on my
modifications to the ICE Windowing manager to make it extremely user
friendly. Everyone's' presentation usually includes some sort of side
show presentation, and supporting printed documentation which is handed
out to the group. The sessions are divided into two parts. A KISS
session for people with less experience with Linux, and then a more
heavy duty main presentation of more advanced topics. The main
presentation is usually by professional IT managers or professional
programmers. They have had presentations by people working at Silicon
Graphics, Sun Microsystems, the CEO of Colorado Tape Backup drives,
Techangle ISP, Standard & Poors IT manager and so forth. My
presentation was for the KISS session. Each meeting has extensive door
prizes. When your number is called, you get to choose from a table full
of books and boxed distributions and other novelty items related to
Linux or open source. They had an auction and I won the high bid on a
bundle of Adobe PhotoShop 5.0, 5.5 and Adobe Pagemaker 6.5 all in the
original boxes for $13.00. The president is a very likable amiable guy
who is easy to talk too. Honestly, I have never been insulted by the
president, or anyone else there. They certainly don't devote time to
"list policy" or "netiquette". Everyone just does their thing in a very
professional manner, and they share their knowledge with one another.
There isn't just one star. Everyone is made to feel like a
contributing member. I think the MidPac group is a good group and the
CompUSA presentation was a very good thing. I know that LinuxDan worked
very hard on it. Scott Belford has great ideas and experience. Some of
the MidPac group members are every bit if not more knowledgeable then
the people in Denver. I find it a shame that immediately after the
CompUSA demo day, all this strife had to break out. I actually haven't
been critical of the group as a whole, but have certainly suffered
abusive, degrading treatment from the leader, and I don't think that's a
good thing, particularly when I see the same thing happening to others
who are just new to the list or who are seeking help and are willing to
pay for it. I may be in the middle of the discussion, but I certainly
didn't start the problem. My initial biggest offense apparently was
forgetting on occasion to trim a post. It went downhill from there.
Ironically my wife and I have been financial contributors to the
group, and find it very unethical and unprofessional to be continually
insulted by the leader. Something's not right. Leadership is more
than just technical knowledge. A leader has to be a people person , and
good politician. Leadership isn't insulting people for their opinion
when they have solicited opinions in the first place. I find it
extremely offensive to be labeled a "troll" whatever that is in techno
jargon. I like the members of the Luau group, and see it as an
organization which has great potential to promote "open source" in
Hawaii. But for this to happen, the leadership will have to stop
directly insulting others, particularly those who have directly
contributed financially to the cause. I'm not asking for special
favors, but I certainly didn't expect abusive treatment when I made my
donation.
Elayne Man wrote:
Okay, let's stop (indirectly) pointing fingers here... it may have been
better to personally contact Ed about his e-mails, but nobody's perfect.
If you have a problem with someone, try to take it out on them
personally; the whole list doesn't need to know. (Maybe something of
this extent can be added to the policy that Scott is writing?)
George, you often talk about how lousy the LUAU operation is, and stated
a couple of times about your "CLUE" group in Denver. So why don't you
become a part of the solution by telling us how CLUE runs their group?
Let's learn by example & experience. I remember Warren mentioning that
the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group had an interesting list policy worth
looking at: http://www.svlug.org/policies/list-policy.shtml
"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad
judgement." - quite true
elayne
