Re: [orca-list] Off topic discussions

[Krishnakant <hackingkk gmail com>]

On Fri, 2009-02-27 at 11:40 -0500, Willie Walker wrote:
> 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.
yes very true, although we must be a bit flexible at times since things
might link back to orca discussions indirectly or padagogically.

> 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.
I completely agree.  The problem however is that people come here to
compare orca with jaws or some thing else which should be equally
discouraged, then the root problem mentioned above will be automatically
disabled.

We are here to provide freedom to blind people and open up new avanues
in daily and professional computing and the only way is to make free and
open source a compeling option and not a "comparative " option.

So such discussions should not be initiated in the first place.
If there is a feature request it should sound like "this feature would
give X bennifit and would impact the y functionality positively ".
and not "I think jaws has this feature so lets have it because then I
will find it easy to shift ".

> 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.
Totally agreed and this will also help the questions go to their
respective places.
As a side note, if such question are very urgent for some people, try
asking them on the irc channel for orca rather than crowding the mailing
list.

> 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.
Very true and just sending a link on this list to the bug report is more
than sufficient.

> 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.
and EVINCE!!! I was about to bring up the topic in my next mail *smile *
> </opinion>
May the sanity of the list last for ever.

happy hacking.
Krishnakant.