> All personal advocacy aside, we need to remember that TCLUG is the > Twin Cities Linux Users' Group. As such, we have members from all > corners of the distribution world. Unless you roll-you-own, you're > probably using one distribution or another. Given that observation, > we should commit ourselves to quelling the typical distribution-specif > advocacy we would normally see on comp.os.linux.<dist>.advocacy. By > typical, I do not mean advocacy in the manner laid out by official > distribution policy or constitution, but advocacy that you see from > the everyday, average distribution enthusiast. Advocacy is informative, if that's actually what you're doing -- i.e., pointing out some of the strengths of a particular distribution. This even entails a comparative approach. That's fine as long as it sticks to *technical* points of distinction. Such discussions are educational to new users, as well as useful to more seasoned users when switching distributions could be potentially very costly (in terms of time, which _is_ money after all). But the benefit of such discussions is completely nullified if it turns from advocacy to eulogizing or vituperation, which then turns into rancor. This is merely my opinion, of course. In short, flamewars are often enough sparked by flamebait and most of us are capable of recognizing when we're producing that, or not reacting to it in the most positive fashion. > Committing the TCLUG environment to this tenant wouldn't be too > difficult, and it may promote a more constructive forum on the list... I'm all for that. > I'm not trying to change any personal philosophies here; just trying > to pour a little oil on our apparently troubled waters. IMO, once again, it all comes down to whether each person is inclined towards a default policy of treating respectfully the other members of the community. Andy --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org