Re[2]: ML moderation (was: security alerts in busybox)

>Please, let me know when the "exporting democracy to others with
>enforceable means" starts.

  Roberto, I'm going to make one attempt at getting through to you in
good faith and without animosity. And then I will stop talking, because
one of us polluting the ML with off-topic noise is already more than
enough.

  No matter what you seem to believe, free software is not "just the code
and nothing else matters".
  If it worked that way, everyone would be coding their stuff at home and
nobody but themselves would ever look at what they've done.
  Yes, you are free to do that, and nobody is denying you that; it is,
by and large, what Eric S. Raymond does. It is more or less the
libertarian ideal applied to software, and if that is what you're after,
it's all good. But ESR, who seems to be one of your models, publishes
his software, and blogs about his ideas, on *his own site*, and has a
few dedicated followers. He follows the libertarian ideal of not
infringing on others' liberty, and does his own thing without squatting
public space in order to advertise it.
  You could do the same. You have advertised your project in an adjacent
community; now it's known; following the logic, you could set up your
own ML, or your own communication channels, and then interact with 
people
who have chosen to follow your project.

  But that is not what you're doing. What you're doing is interacting 
with
the busybox community, taking up a lot of space, talking loudly, and 
when
someones asks you to tone it down, you retreat behind "It's free 
software,
you don't have to use my stuff, you don't have to interact with me, 
nobody
has any obligations".

  Except we *do* have obligations. Free software is not just about code,
it is also about *community*. In order to share software in an efficient
manner, we need to foster communities around that software. And as soon
as there's a community, as soon as there is something social, there are
rules. You may not like it, I may not like it, but there are. There is a
social contract, just like there is in the outside world. Outside, the
social contract is made explicit by various laws (whether or not laws
materialize an acceptable social contract is beside the point); in free
software communities, and small communities generally, there is more 
good
will, so the social contract is often implicit, but it does exist.
Sometimes it is made explicit by codes of conduct, contributor
agreements, and similar things, which you might see as unnecessary, but
they exist for a reason: their existence means that somewhere, sometime,
someone has broken the social contract and the community has deemed it
necessary to write it down as a first step to ensuring it does not 
happen
again.

  The rules generally boil down to one very simple thing:
  "Don't be an asshole."
  Which roughly means:

  - You are part of a community of individuals who share an interest in
a piece of software
  - We are all here to talk about that software, and since we all lead
busy lives, with lots of things that demand our attention, and little
time, we would like this place to stay reasonably on-topic
  - We are humans who enjoy positive, warm feelings and feel bad when
someone is shouting at us or insulting us, or is being overly
argumentative for no apparent reason, and we should not have to "grow
a thicker skin", we would rather everyone grow manners
  - We expect everyone in the community to understand this and self-
regulate to keep this place welcoming, a place where it is pleasant to
interact with other members and talk about the software and avoid 
wasting
everybody's time
  - Do not go against these interests of the community

  It is not about dictatorship, quite the contrary. It is about communal
interest.

  And you *are* violating these implicit rules. You are behaving in a way
that makes it difficult for others to use this mailing-list for its
intended purposes. Despite what you may believe, your presence and
interventions, for the last few months, have not been helping the
community of people who, like you, are interested in using busybox and
making it better. They have been *detrimental* to it.

  In other words: you seem to think this is a free-for-all, and that you
are in your own right to post so much about barely relevant stuff and
occupy so much space, to be contemptuous of other contributors and to
veer into off-topic rants every time someone says something. But this is
not true. Even though they aren't written, there are laws. Most people
are, more or less consciously, aware of them, and are able to self-
regulate. You have been asked to self-regulate, and you have refused to
hear. You think your perception of what is reasonable is more correct
than what everyone else has told you. I'm sorry, but your perception is
wrong, and you are *not* being reasonable.

  So, yes, I am calling the police. Not because I like authoritarian
regimes, but because I want this community to thrive, and right now, you
are an obstacle to that. This is nothing personal against you, but the
community takes precedence over you. And as I said, without moderation,
other people will also fail to self-regulate sooner or later - you are,
believe it or not, not that special.

  If you can hear me, understand I'm talking in good faith, and actually
engage with what I'm saying, cheers and thank you.
  If not, oh well, I tried.

--
  Laurent