[orca-list] Off topic discussions

[Willie Walker <William Walker Sun COM>]

Hi All:

I really like the fact that the orca-list is full of friendly, 
constructive people helping each other.  This is fantastic and shows we 
have a great community.

However, debugging/griping/learning about topics other than Orca are a 
bit off topic.  I'm at a loss for what to do here.  On one hand, it's 
people helping people, which is good.  On the other hand, it adds 
messages that are considered inappropriate discussions by others.

Here is my semi-strong opinion...

<opinion mode=semi-strong>
For example, moral diatribes about Linux vs. Windows are perhaps 
interesting and entertaining to some people dipping their toes into the 
open source space for the first time, but they are also old, tired, 
boring, uninsightful, and unconstructive to others who have been around 
the block a few times.  I'd prefer those kinds of discussions be held 
somewhere else.  Instead, let's keep our focus on a problem we can 
solve: making Orca a compelling application for users.

Another example is questions about how audio or accessibility is 
integrated/included on a particular operating system distribution 
(OpenSolaris, Ubuntu, GRML, Vinux/Vibuntu, Joe Schmoe's Change the World 
Distro That Looks Like Everyone Else's Distro But It's Named Joe Schmoe 
So It Must Be A Better Distro).  They should be held elsewhere.

If audio or accessibility doesn't work on your favorite distribution of 
the week, report it to the operating system distribution.  They are the 
ones who need to solve those kinds of integration problems and they are 
the ones who need to know about it.  If you have a link to the bug 
report that you filed with the operating distribution, you might post it 
here as a means to help other people know that the problem is known and 
has been logged.  Diagnosis and debugging an OS integration issue, 
however, probably should take place with the OS distribution and not on 
the Orca list.

Issues or suggestions for using Orca to access Thunderbird, OOo, FF, 
GNOME in general, etc., or people wanting to become part of the Orca 
solution, however, are definitely welcome.  That's the kind of focus we 
need.
</opinion>

Will