On Thu, 2005-10-27 at 13:51 -0400, Chad Smith wrote:

The issue is not about whether or not MS is or is not evil.

What is the purpose of the marketing list? 

To promote OOo

What is the biggest obstacle to take up of OOo?

MS Office

Therefore arguments about how to weaken the opposition are as natural to
that group as it would be for a hockey team to work out the weaknesses
and vulnerabilities of the opposition in a big game. (leaving aside
analogies of warring nations where the penalties for siding with the
opposition are more severe)

I doubt that if during one of our team talks before a rugby match one of
the players started to say why the opposition were great and superior to
us in many departments. What if one of the game strategies agreed by all
the other players as a key to success and that had been worked on for
weeks in training had a minor set back and that person started
rejoicing? Don't you think they would get thrown off the team?

Its not fundamentally about agreeing on every detail of policy but there
comes a point when you have to make a judgement about where your
loyalties reside. You don't think ODF matters, 5000 people signing a
petition in the space of a week show that other people do. Just let them
get on with it and put your efforts into something else. You can't be
both pro-MS Office and Pro-OOo in an OOo marketing forum where the
things are head to head. I think there are things about OOo that suck.
Bloated inefficient code for a start but I don't constantly take every
opportunity to denigrate the product and those that work on it on that
point. 

A good remedy on presentation is not to post anything negative about OOo
or the related initiatives for at least a month. Only post positive
suggestions about why something will be beneficial or improve things,
not why thngs suck, are a bad idea and don't post anything about MS at
all.



-- 
Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
ZMSL

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