FreeBSD mail list etiquette

[Marcel Moolenaar]

On Sat, Oct 25, 2003 at 12:55:26PM -0700, Kip Macy wrote:
> > There is also a problem in that the dirty work, even if done in a
> > way that demonstrates that the person has skills, is not always
> > recognised as important. The recognition has to come from within
> > that part of the developer community that has commit bits, because
> > you need someone with a commit bit to actually commit the stuff. If
> > noone with a commit bit recorgnises the dirty work as important,
> > it's not going to be committed and the person who has done the dirty
> > work is not recognised as someone who is worthy of a commit bit
> > because none of his work has been committed.
> >
> 
> I think this perfectly underscores, if not restates, Terry's point. He
> doesn't believe sufficient value is placed on the "dirty work".

There's a fundamental difference between recognition of important
work and valuing important work. If you don't recognise it, you
cannot value it. Undervaluing important work therefore implies
that you at least recognise it.

There probably is some undervaluing in the FreeBSD project. However,
one must not forget that "there's always a bigger fish" (one of the
more lame lines from The Phantom Menace, btw). There's such a thing
as bad timing for dirty work. This does not render the dirty work
unimportant per se, but it does make it irrelevent for the moment.
This is where I think a lot of the friction originates.

> Those working in the DragonFly tree, all appreciate Hiten's hard work as a
> "bottle-washer".

I don't understand why Hiten has to be insulted all of a sudden. Then
again, it does make a weird kind of sense considering the following:

> We've benefited from the fact that members of the FreeBSD
> community, through racist remarks and endless flames, and a key member of
> core, through the indefinite postponement of a commit-bit, have alienated
> him.

I for one am very glad you're not a member of the FreeBSD community.
And given that you've found a place with DragonFly, there's little
chance that you become part of FreeBSD community in the future. For
that I'm also very glad. So, all in all, I'm very glad DragonFly
exists. Now even more than before. Because besides the technical
divergence it also seems to have the effect of purifying the FreeBSD
community from those who are dumb enough to make a fool of themselves,
and indirectly the project, race and species they're associated with
or otherwise belong to. Unfortunately, that's still 2 out of 3 for
me, but then again life wouldn't be so much fun for me if it wasn't
for guys like you Kip. I can handle the embarrassment, so do stick
around...

-- 
 Marcel Moolenaar	  USPA: A-39004		 marcel at xcllnt.net