On Mon, 2006-03-27 at 01:14 +0200, Ely Levy wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Mar 2006, Michael Vasiliev wrote:
>
> > On Sunday March 26 2006 09:31, Uri Even-Chen wrote:
> > > Michael Vasiliev wrote:
> > > > Oded, there are some things that I will certainly not tolerate on this
> > > > list and xenophobia is one of them. Consider yourself officially warned.
> > > > In case you decide to continue pursuing that topic, I'll arrange you a
> > > > personal vacation with less reading and writing. Have a nice day.
> > >
> > > Have you never heard of freedom of speech? I don't agree with what he
> > > said, but he has the right to think and say it! He didn't curse and
> > > didn't break any rule, he just said that he thinks the American decision
> > > makers are stupid. I think there are some truth in it. But I wouldn't
> > > use the word stupid - I would use the words arrogant, selfish etc.
[... snipped ...]
> > Fifth, I understand completely that the spirit of freedom, so abundant in
> > the
> > main topic of this list, has to manifest itself somehow in the list rules.
> > For this reason, I suggest that the moderator group position(s) should be
> > filled by annual election, similarly to moderated Usenet groups.
> >
> *Sign*, Do we really need all that?
> To be honest I don't think a mailing list should have rules at all.
> How about change it to guidelines?
> Anyhow how many other people can do as good job as you do?:)
How I hate it when an institution worked fine for several years, and
people generally were happy with it - until a man, strong in principles
and weak in pragmatics, threw a stone into the well and 200 smart men
could not get the stone out of the well.
Sorry, until someone with very strong principles shouted the call for
democracy, and now we are in the process of destroying what worked well
just to satisfy some people with strong principles that there is a
democracy.
See, this mailing list is like a private bar. The owner sets the rules
in a dictatorial way. But the spirit of freedom is preserved thanks to
the fact that people, who do not accept the owner's rules are free to
vote with their feet; and furthermore - they have several alternatives
to that private bar.
Furthermore, in the bar analogy, a bar managed by a democratically
elected committee would not be as much fun as a bar managed by a single
smart owner.
In the Free Software world there are other examples of well-oiled and
working dictatorships:
Linux is under the undemocratic control of His Majesty BDFL Linus
Torvalds.
Python is likewise controlled by BDFL Guido van Rossum. And it is fun
to program in it!
To all the knights of democracy, please have a look in the contents
rather than in the external form. See whether there is a mechanism for
addressing everyone's concerns. Whether there is a feedback mechanism
which keeps the dictator honest. Whether the institution is embedded in
a democratic country.
--- Omer
--
MS-Windows is the Pal-Kal of the PC world.
My own blog is at http://tddpirate.livejournal.com/
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