Do the candidates for leader feel that their attitudes and behaviour to new people in the irc channel are in line with the office of leader? Today we were visited by a new face, who has been active recently on the mailing list. Perhaps by virtue of some fault of their own, but probably due to the prevailing attitudes on the channel, some people were pretty rude to the new person.Since your tuppence seems awfully unclear I'm going to paraphrase what I think you're really trying to say in several ways, each of them in my own completely biased way, and then answer those questions.
One of those people is standing for leader of London.PM. My question is this: Is such rudeness appropriate, and is such an attitude what we are looking for in a leader?
I must say that I would find it extremely difficult to vote for somebody with such an abrasive personality, regardless of their technical skills. We aren't looking for a project manager, we're looking for somebody who will arrange social events and be (where necessary) the public face of the London Perl M[ou]ngers.
Just my tuppence.
*/ What is the role of the groups leader when it comes to irc?
*/ (Could|should) there be a set of guidelines for the #london.pm, as there already are for the mailing list?
*/ I think $candidate is a rude bastard on irc. I won't be voting for him, and neither should you.
Now that I've stacked the deck, here are my answers (they may fit the questions rather well, but I can't quite put my finger on why...)
*/ What is the role of the groups leader when it comes to irc?
I think pretty much the same as on the mailing list, to listen and ask the right questions (and yes, I do believe that the right question is sometimes "would you kindly shut the fuck up")
It's worth bearing in mind that #london.pm is only one aspect of the Dancing Monkey Machine which is London.pm, and that the leader is a member too and as such gets to be as irrational as the rest of the monkeys.
*/ (Could|should) there be a set of guidelines for the #london.pm, as there already are for the mailing list?
This depends largely on the existing users of the channel. Certainly the pages on london.pm.org could stand to have a few general pointers to irc behaviour likely to annoy, what passes for top-posting in irc for example, to enable smoother integration of the new with the existing users of the channel (who at last count seem to account for 40-odd connected users).
Oh, I just thought of a sub-question. Who plays channel-admin to enforce any guidelines? It's a much different role from list-admin, or even list-mom, since there's no subscription system; plus there seems to be less encouragement for people to lurk before contributing to the channel often resulting in culture-clash.
*/ I think $candidate is a rude bastard on irc. I won't be voting for him, and neither should you.
I think you might have someone in mind here :)
Of course it's entirely your vote, to spend as you wish. I must say though, if you're hoping for a candidate who can't possibly insult anyone in any circumstance, I think you're best off voting for RON.
Before I finish I want to pull out one particularly odd statement:
I must say that I would find it extremely difficult to vote for somebody with such an abrasive personality, regardless of their technical skills. We aren't looking for a project manager, we're looking for somebody who will arrange social events and be (where necessary) the public face of the London Perl M[ou]ngers.Appointing a project manager as leader would be a fine idea, and I think you're doing many project managers a big disservice if you think they're low on interpersonal skills.
--
Richard Clamp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
