Let me preface by saying that I think this is the first time in all
those years that I actively agree with Ron. Which is why after a lot
of back and forth, I decided to reply to this email instead of
elsewhere in this thread even though I don't agree 100% in all cases.
On Sat, Sep 6, 2014 at 2:29 AM, Ron <ron@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I don't profess to hold myself up as a saint that others should
> emulate here. You don't have to look too hard to know I'm not.
Agreed. All the more, I appreciate what you wrote below.
> I wasn't in the room, but I have watched the recording, and I didn't
> get the impression that things went unchallenged, or that he was
> 'advertising' anything that he wasn't explicitly asked to talk about.
Agreed.
> If members of the audience were permitted to ask him inappropriate
> questions, then surely it is them which should be censured, not him?
> And surely that reflects more poorly on "us", not him?
Either both some questions _and_ his answers were inappropriate or neither were.
Personally, I do not think the questions were inappropriate, given
that Linus stated that he didn't mind confrontation and even enjoys
it.
> It would be kind of rude to turn around and say "oh that was a trick
> question, you answered it wrong you bad person!".
I would have used different words, but I share the sentiment.
> Sure, if our attendees can't be trusted to freely ask any question,
> and to defend what we think is the correct rebuttal when faced with
> an answer We Don't Like, then maybe another format could work better.
> It wasn't like anyone at the mike was cut off before they left it
> voluntarily for the next person though, or that anyone else couldn't
> rise to speak at it.
Again, I would have used different words, but I agree.
> I am a little saddened that he wasn't actually officially invited when
> the conference was held in his home town (and was originally explicitly
> not invited), and having watched the video I am rather surprised at the
> huge flap that's exploded from a throwaway line he already apologised
> for at the time.
Agreed yet again. Like him or not, he is a hugely influential person
in the Linux ecosystem and this QA was interesting in several regards.
Inviting Lennart Poettering was a good idea and so was "inviting"
(fsvo) Linus. A mature audience can be expected to anticipate the
behavior of well-known figures with better-known egos should attend,
or not, based on this. Everyone at DebConf should be aware that those
are relative outsiders. As long as they behave within reason, as both
did, some level of confrontation is to be expected by their very
nature.
> But most of all, I'd like us all to actually learn something from this
> because I think this thread says far more about Us than it does about
> Linus. There is clearly a poison here, and its antidote is neither to
> ban or demonise Linus, or for people to point fingers at somebody *else*
> and declare *they* are the problem.
>
> We are the problem. All of Us. Individually.
>
> Until people start taking individual responsibility for that. Until the
> people who inflamed this thread can look at themselves and honestly say,
> "Yeah, I handled that badly didn't I. I'll try not to do that again",
> until we all actually grow to fit the shoes we say we want to wear, this
> problem will continue.
For over 95% of all replies in this thread, I strongly disagree with
"inflame", but I have to admit that some sub-threads seemed overly
long and that several people seemed to contradict themselves several
times. This resulted in a very long thread (as people probably
noticed).
> I know I've been trying hard to do my part.
That's great to hear!
Personally, I am currently working on my emails appearing more
positive; it seems my writing style is often seen as disagreement when
I merely want to list factual data points to think about.
I wanted to close this email by quoting madduck in saying that he
appreciated that even though this is a long and somewhat emotionally
heated thread, people remained civil throughout.
I think this bodes well for Debian as a community even if we don't
always agree on the specifics.
Be excellent to each other,
Richard
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