over the past 5 years there are some negative remarks on me or my posts. I have almost never responded to any of them. Here i want to clarify a few things.
• I seldomly write off-topic posts. For example, any argument about netiquette, i consider off-topic, including defense such as what i'm doing now. But in recent years i gradually relaxed my stringent self- imposed rules in my posting habit. (See “Aloofness vs Approable” http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/aloof_vs_approachable.html ) • many says i'm posting off topic posts. In recent years they start to say i'm posting tangentially relevant posts. That's not correct. In fact, there are huge number of blatantly off-topics posts by regulars that spawn off from threads, happens regularly. The topics vary anywhere from discussing politics, law, licenses, free speech, math education, yapping on happenings of celebrity programers, and including rampant flamewars and accusations among themselves. (see ★ “Old School Netiquette” http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/os_netiquette.html ) • Some people says that i don't participate in discussion, and this is part of the reason they think i'm a so-called “troll”. Actually i do, and read every reply to my post, as well have replied to technical questions other posted. Most reply to my posts are attacks or trivial (of few sentences) i don't consider worthy to reply. A few, maybe 10% replies to my controvial posts, i consider having some value. But if i don't have opinion on what they remarked, i don't reply. Also, if all i wanted to say is “thanks”, i tend to avoid posting such trivial posts too. (i used to reply by personal email in such cases, I still do sometimes now, but today that can be considered intrusive.) (see ★ “Philosophies of Netiquette” http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/phil_netiquette.html , ) In newsgroups which i feel i'm more part of the community, i do reply more often. (e.g. in the dot com years (~1999) i'm much more active in comp.lang.perl.misc including asking technical questions; during 2005-2006 while i was learning python, did somewhat frequent posts to comp.lang.python; in this year in comp.lang.lisp, i frequently replied and argued more freely. But in this year, also very active in gnu.emacs.help, most of my posts there just answered tech questions) • Most newsgroup tech geekers consider cross-posting wrong. I consider the taboo of this convention being a major contribution to the redundant creation of new languages, and foster the hostile faction nature of programing language communities we see. (see ★ “Cross-posting & Language Factions” http://xahlee.org/Netiquette_dir/cross-post.html ) • There's a lot rumors that says i post prodigiously. Actually, when i'm active, i post only about 1 or 2 posts per week, in the past 10 years. (See the “Aloofness vs Approachble” article cited above. Note that, last time i checked, the stat given by poster's profile at groups.google.com is actually erroneous. I think it counts all replies or multiply cross posts) • Many say i repeatedly post old essays i wrote that are published on my website. The total number of times i've done that is perhaps 4 or absoletly less than than 10, since the 12 years of using newsgroup started in 1996. The first of such “repeat” must be sometimes after 2004. The interval of a “repeat” happens is at least half a year, more likely 1 or 2 years. Also, the repeat does not happen more than once. (to be absolutely correct, possibly there is 1 essay that are posted at a max of 3 times) I “repeat” a essay i've written because i think the issue is important, the situation has not changed, and i consider it worth to be said again. When appropriate, i incorporate information from the discussion into by my essay, with proper credits. (this esp has happened in my Python tutorial, emacs lisp tutorial, java tutorial, various classical literature on my site) Actually, most accusations about me falls apart if one just take 10 min to check the facts. • When i used my google email account to post, as opposed to my older google account [EMAIL PROTECTED], often people accuse me of “changing identity to avoid killfile”. This is just one of their ways these people drivel. I don't really give a fuck i'm kill filed or not kill filed. People change emails all the time. In the past 10 years of using newsgroups, i've only used [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED] . And before 2000, i had few other emails before i registered the domain xahlee.org. I rather stick with [EMAIL PROTECTED], but the re-login to different google accounts with several of their services is becoming a pain. See, for example, this post this month: http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Accounts-API/browse_thread/thread/a179b4fd348900aa?tvc=2 Also, whenever i had a new webhosting provider, people dig it up and accuse me of changing IP to troll. (this happens more frequently in the past, say before 2003, i think that the knowledge of digging up IP is now considered lame even amoneg these stupid tech geekers) My site xahlee.org has changed web hosting about every 2 years for variety of reasons. For a few years it was hosted free on the math educational site that used to be mathforum.org of Swathmore edu. (For some detail of my website hosting and history, see: ★ “Web Hosting Compared: 2006-01” http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/t1/webhosting.html A little trivia: before i had xahlee.org in 2000, my site was hosted at best.com/~xah starting in 1996. Some very very old sites still link to that. ) The only time that my change of web hoster has anything to do with my posting, is in 2006 someone harrassed me to have my web hosting kick me off due to my controversial postings in comp.lang.* groups. I have written a detailed account about it on my website. you can easily find the url by web search “xah, dreamhost, harrassment”. (for the record, any ban, or harrasment on me, i keep a record as truthful as possile. Most of these bans, kicks, or fights happens in just aboun every online forum, inworld game groups, irc chat groups, ...etc where the participants are almost all males. Typically, they are not unlike highschool boys brawling things out. If the issue effected me or pissed me in some serious way, i publish it on my website. The keeping record is very tedious. For example, in newsgroups you might want to save all the messages in a thread this happened. In online forums, blogs, social networking sites, where posts can be deleted or modified easily, it's more tedious to keep a history of the site (e.g. screenshots), and to keep a manual written log of what happened when. Similarly, in irc, you have to save the chat, manage the chat logs, adding comment on what happened where with what chat log, finding out people's real identities if proper, etc. (as a example, i've been ban'd in freenode.com's #emacs irc chat since 2006. See ★ “Emacs Irc Channel Ban on Xah Lee” http://xahlee.org/emacs/xah_ban_emacs_irc.html . I have a bunch of irc chat logs when i'm banned. I always save the chat log when someone ban me unjustly. But it's quite time consuming to organize them and write about them.)) (as another example of ban, in about 2 months ago i was ban'd in Wikipedia. I was editing 3 article related to Tibet, of which i consider my edit very proper. But, in my opinion, it's too much againt Western's popular beliefs. I wrote detailed argument about my edit in my Wikipedia's personal talk page. The Wikipedia fuckheads not only ban'd me, but subsequently ban'd me in editing my pesonal Wikipedia page too, and blatantly deleted the detailed reason that i defended my edit. The incident is here, bottom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:P0lyglut the writing where i defended my edit, is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:P0lyglut&diff=prev&oldid=215672906 Wikipedia these days is a huge organization (ranked top 10 of all sites), and part of the good thing is that they have some rules and regulations that prevents the fuckheads powers struggle too much, in that they have 1-month ban, with record of history, and in general has ways to further one's case to judgement. However, it's still subject to a lot tech geekers or other cartel of vested interest in keeping some article to the way they liked. I do consider Wikipedia one of the most important site and in fact part of my life, but these days i avoid “contributing”. (e.g. i have now over 4000 links to Wikipedia articles from my site. I estimate, that for each link i've made, there are maybe 10 more article i've read. See for example: ★ “Links To Wikipedia from XahLee.org” http://xahlee.org/wikipedia_links.html , ★ “Generate a Web Links Report with Emacs Lisp” http://xahlee.org/emacs/elisp_link_report.html , ★ “Encyclopedia, My Experiences” http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/encyclopedia.html ★ “Lispers and Wikipedia” http://xahlee.org/emacs/lispers_n_wikipedia.html ) ) ----------------- I've been actively using online forums since 1991 in CompuServe and AppleLink days. I've seen my share of flames, netiquette arguments, etc. (the medium include: newsgroup, mailing list, web forum, irc, communities inside massive multi-player online games) I've been banned now and then in places. (in one case, legally definable harrassment, which happened and perhapss well-known at the time in comp.lang.* groups few years ago) From what i see, the banning, heated accusations and quarrels, are mostly exhibition of male nature and political struggle, not unlike political struggles that happens in society at large, such as in academia, corporations, goverment orgs, between corporations, between nations. Some say “why can't you be normal”? It is true i tend to discuss controversial topics and with non- conformal attitude. I have my reasons and you could say it's just a personality. However, “being not normal” is not a reason to accuse. There are philosophers, unorthodox, dissenters, free thinkers, flag bunners, protesters, traitor/founder, homosexuals ... many are persecuted, considered a crime, in the past, and some are now considered national or international heros. Btw, this post is not some kinda formal defense to some formal accusations. Newsgroups has always been a very contentious and argumentive medium, and perhaps far more wortheless with relatively little readership and impact on society than tech geeking regulars like to think. People in fact like newsgroups that way. I don't feel necessary to respond to morons. This post is just one of my post i feels like writing. You guys to whatever it is that you do. PS as i have detailed, i have my own moral ethics in posting. Most posts and opinions are just too stupid, igonrant, for me to consider replying. If you really belived that some of my opinion or posts are wrong, contain bad advice, or wrong fact, then do post, as i do read every reply it shows up in groups.google.com. And, whatever is your opinion, i would recommend you spend 30 minutes to write your reply. (as i do spend 1 to even 6 hours in most of my newsgroup posts as explained in detail in one of the above cited article) Also, if the subject is unconventional and you see i put forth my opinion forcefully, i suggest you take 30 minutes, to think, do research, about it before you reply. Also, if prefer to reply to those who post with real names. Again, i don't consider this is some serious issue, or that my opinions and beliefs and behaviors are always correct. It's just another newsgroup day. Do whatever it is that you do. Xah ∑ http://xahlee.org/ ☄ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
