On 2009-Jun-24 13:56:59 -0700, Robert Miller <rlmills...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Another point to make is a video I saw recently by the SVN guys, who >> claimed that the amount of discussion which centers around a decision >> is inversely proportional to how important it is. They related a story >> where the project nearly forked and many feelings were hurt over >> something ten times more trivial than this topic. Just for perspective. > >By the way, I just rediscovered the video, and the topic was actually >whether or not to have spaces before parentheses. They didn't actually >almost fork, but there was a vast vote, where people who hadn't >contributed for a long time were being lobbied to.....
Within FreeBSD development circles, this is referred to as a 'bikeshed': The principal is that if someone starts discussing how to build a nuclear reactor containment vessel, very few people will have sufficient understanding of the issues involved to be able to offer constructive comments and so will refrain from commenting at all. OTOH, if someone starts discussing how to build a shed to store their pushbike, everyone will have an opinion on what colour it should be and so everyone makes a comment. As for this specific thread, I think it should be painted green... -- Peter Jeremy
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