Is Flaming Good?

["Dan \"Effugas\" Kaminsky" <effugas best com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Vogt <tom@lemuria.org>
To: gnome-gui-list@gnome.org <gnome-gui-list@gnome.org>
Date: Wednesday, August 19, 1998 12:13 AM
Subject: Re: Apologies to gnome-gui if I ever said you guys were flamers...


>Dan Effugas Kaminsky <effugas@best.com> wrote:
>> I do NOT mind coders saying "by the way, this is kinda hard because of X,
Y,
>> and Z."  I DO mind "dan kaminsky is an idiot/dumbass out to kill gnome".
>> That was the general reaction I got in the Gnome developer IRC channel,
by
>> the way.
>
>well dan - you've got a problem here. and it won't go away by labeling the
>gnome-developers flaming bastards.
>
>see, these are the guys who will have to write the code for your ideas. as
>long as they take that view on you, it simply won't happen and you can just
>as well close shop and go home.
>
>what can you do? the social solution: work on your pr department to create
a
>better impression of yourself. or the technical solution: learn to write
>gnome lib stuff and prove them wrong by implementing things yourself.


Well, I have a choice, Tom.

I can either accept that this is how GNOME is going to treat ANYBODY who
tries to make a proposal, or I can stand up and say, *NO*, I don't care if
you're god and you coded the universe, you don't have the right in an "open"
coding environment to, without even glancing at the proposal, dismiss out of
hand its contents because it doesn't contain speech in the language you want
to read it in!  (Take that, Judge Gwin.)  I'm not fighting the fight for
myself.  I'm fighting it for the future of free software:  An industry known
not for saying no but for saying "fuck off you suit you don't have a clue"
is NOT going to earn much corporate respect.

What do you want, Tom?  Do you think all proposals should be greeted as mine
was?