On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 11:37:53AM +0100, Kevin Kofler wrote: > laura@xxxxxxxxxx wrote: > > Thank you for your reply, you're the only @fedora poster I see so I only > > read and respond to you,as you represent officialness, > > Paul W. Frields is the *Fedora Project Leader*, you idiot! Well, no need to call names. > > so to avoid getting into long rantings with trolls > > Pot calling the kettle black. It's obvious to me at this point that the OP wasn't interested in an honest dialogue, but had already made up her mind to some extent on the issues. In one sense that's unfortunate, because everywhere I've gone and spoken about these issues with other people -- many of them users of various Linux distributions other than Fedora -- I've been able to achieve a really clear understanding with tham as to how these issues work. Maybe it's that email isn't as good a communication vehicle as we'd like (or think?), but that's neither here nor there. But I do know that on many occasions -- not just a few -- those people have walked away with a far better appreciation for how Fedora works, and not just in the sense of legal, licensing, or maintenance issues. That makes me feel very confident in our model and community strength. Now in another sense it's not all that unfortunate, because people who aren't even willing to listen critically and discuss constructively frankly don't make very effective community members. That's not to say that disagreement is bad! If we never disagreed with each other in the Fedora community, Fedora would quickly wither and die. A substantial amount of our progress comes from disagreement -- *constructive* disagreement -- and then discussion, consensus, a plan of action, and follow-through to address it. And being strong-minded is fine too -- as long as one balances that with openness to change in the event that one is wrong. People who aren't willing to be open-minded in their thinking, and their interactions with other community members, don't tend to be good at contributing. So if someone without the inclination to engage in constructive dialogue doesn't want to continue in our community, they're free to pursue their own idea of greener pastures, and we welcome them back when their worldview has blossomed a bit. Free and open source software are built on open dialogue, vigorous collaboration, and critical (but cordial!) review of ideas, code, and content. In my experience, Fedora leads the pack when it comes to building on those cornerstones of FOSS. Our continued, shared success in empowering a huge, diverse, and energetic community of contributors to FOSS -- not just consumers -- isn't just some marketing hype; it's a testament to the power of these ideas. (By the way, I'm also pfrields@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, but for now I prefer to use the same email address I've been using for 5.5 years of contributing to FOSS through the Fedora Project.) -- Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/ gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717 http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/ irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
Attachment:
pgpUXA4bIOZGW.pgp
Description: PGP signature
-- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
