[CrackMonkey] Re: [/etc/motd] open-source-developer

[Jay Beale]

In the wise words of Rick Moen:

> [Cross-post w/Reply-To set.]
> 
> Quoting Nick Moffitt (nick at zork.net):
> 
> > This man started a user group for open source development, hanging
> > loosely off the side of BUUG (berkeley unix user group I think):
> > 
> > 	http://movieeditor.com/company/robin.html
> > 
> > He started up a yahoo group for his mailing list, for starters....
> 
> Which is sad, for starters.
> 
> > ...and then when I posted the offer to host it on zork (which I
> > mentioned was a free software platform and that it had handled the
> > free-sklyarov list during its peak) he puffed about choosing based on
> > "known suitability, not advocacy" or something like that.
> 
> It also begs the question of why he can't/doesn't run it himself.
> Neither Mailman nor Majordomo2 is exactly brain-surgery, and could
> probably even be run with some success on a very minimal connection.

Welp, cable modems (or, oh-gawd, dial-up) don't really allow you
to run your own mailserver.  You could still do it, with delay, via 
a polling-mailbox + listserv...  Still, a pain in the butt on a 
high traffic list...

 - J



> 
> > I had also posted rick's guide to new groups, which he immediately
> > started flaming about.  
> 
> Indeed, I got lobbed a copy of that message, and looked through it, out
> of curiosity -- since on occasion people make suggestions worth
> incorporating.  All quotations that follow below are from Robin Rowe's
> response to you regarding my essay:
> 
> > Even Rick hasn't gotten around to #2 on his list: "Your Web page needs
> > a reasonable URL." (His group's homepage is
> > http://linuxmafia.com/cabal/, not www.cabal.org.)
> 
> "Reasonable" in this context is of course a matter of degree:  If it had
> been even remotely feasible for me to have acquired cabal.org at any
> time during CABAL's history, I'd of course have done so.  But anyone who
> remembers "linuxmafia" can find CABAL with no trouble at all.  And, if
> they can't, it's Google hit #1, when searching on "Linux CABAL".
> 
> > There are a couple [of] recommendations in that guide that seem
> > ill-conceived.
> > 
> > Point #11, "Design your Web page to be forgiving of deferred
> > maintenance." I think that having a frequently updated Web page is
> > key.  When I discussed this point with Rick he said he was just being
> > practical, that many groups fail to update their Web site on a monthly
> > basis. He is right about that.  But, rather than accept that sort of
> > practicality I've elected to use the time I would have spent on
> > setting up a new infrastructure to keeping the Web site updated using
> > tools close at hand.
> 
> Naturally, any group whose site _never suffers_ deferred maintenance,
> needn't make it forgiving of same.  For groups that list only one
> meeting date at a time, this would require swapping in next month's date
> the _day of the current month's meeting_, each month without fail.  And,
> of course, this tends not to happen -- so, all of those groups display
> obsolete meeting information some or most of every month.
> 
> And, as it happens, Mr. Rowe's page for his "Linux Graphics Group",
> which he offers as poster child, currently displays _obsolete meeting
> information only_.  I rest my case.
> 
> > Point #23 is disturbing. It says, "Walk the walk. It's painfully
> > grotesque to see so-called Linux user groups mailing out announcements
> > using MS-Outlook...maintaining their Web sites using MS Front
> > Page...or other junkware -- and hosting their LUG mailing lists on
> > eGroups / Yahoo Groups."
> > 
> > As a recent feature in Wired magazine pointed out, Linux bigotry in
> > general is a huge turn-off. The guide is really negative, calling
> > competing commercial products "junkware" and labeling its users at
> > "losers." 
> 
> But of course, my essay does _neither_ of those things.  It expresses
> no opposition whatsoever towards use of "commercial products", or even
> proprietary ones.  What it says is that your Linux user group should 
> use _software on Linux_ for its public outreach communications.  
> 
> If an alleged Linux user group uses Yahoo Groups instead of a simple
> Mailman setup (or Listserv, if you prefer proprietary software), and
> sends out announcements using MS-Outlook Express (as Rowe does) instead
> of Mutt / GNUS / KMail / Mahogany / Balsa / Evolution / Post Office /
> Aethera / Spruce / Sylpheed / Pronto -- and maintains its Web site using
> Adobe Page Mill for MS-Windows (as Rowe does) instead of Bluefish or
> QuantaPlus, then that implies a stunning lack of faith in the home team.
> 
> The passage Rowe quoted from continues:
> 
>    Fortunately, these groups are in the minority, but they convey the
>    message of Linux being suitable in neither desktop nor server roles.
> 
>    If you are going to promote and explore Linux, you need to use it.
> 
> For alleged Linux user groups, Rowe's two groups
> (http://www.movieeditor.com/linux-graphics/ and
> http://www.movieeditor.com/open-source-programmer/) sure seem to use a
> lot of Microsoft Windows.
> 
> Entirely aside from that reading-comprehension problem of Mr. Rowe's.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> /etc/motd mailing list -- motd at zork.net
> http://zork.net/mailman/listinfo/motd

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