Re: [9fans] what heavy negativity!

[Lucio De Re <lucio.dere@gmail.com>]

Let's take a step back here, and stop treating jerks like Kurt (or me,
for that matter) the way they treat the ideas they perceive to be
hare-brained.

It's weird that with all the time in the world to "think before
posting", knee-jerk reactions still find their way to a mailing list
like this one that is capable of extremely high quality discussion.

The psychology is clearly complex, mixing territoriality with
competence with defensiveness with mere human frailties, I would not
even like anyone to start investigating that: who knows what it may
reveal?

What I see, though, is that part of the quality displayed here depends
on the like of Hiro and Kurt (and others, I'm not picking on the two
of them) to set a high bar, while others are willing to offer what may
even be misplaced empathy and thus also encourage a certain type of
contribution that may seem weak at best.

No one has a monopoly of "what's good for Plan9...", although if I was
the King here, I'd whip everyone into blending divergent "distros" -
for that despicable moniker describes precisely what they are - into a
modular system where each divergence is carefully documented so that
even newbies can slot into their base system exactly what they
perceive as being valuable.

So, in the interest of not discouraging hare-brained ideas that may
benefit us all, while ensuring that the spirit of Plan 9 is not
diluted by the lure of Linux and associates, let's give everyone some
space and help those that feel offended or victimised to understand
that the rules of  the game, here, at least, include considerable
pain.

Happy coding, everyone!

Lucio.