[orca-list] Topicality...again.

["nolan" <nolan thewordnerd info>]

My gods. It's like we beat this dead horse every few weeks these days.

I don't care about Vinux. If I did, I'd join the Vinux list.

I don't care about VMs and their associated challenges. If I did, I'd 
join that list.

I DO care about Orca,accessibility issues involving it and ways to 
accomplish tasks with it more easily.

It does not become OK to start posting off-topic messages here a few 
weeks after people have asked it to stop.

It does not become OK to post off-topic just because a message is noted 
as such.

It does not become OK to ask any generic question and make it on topic 
because you're running Orca. That makes about as much sense as posting X 
or GNOME questions to a BASH list because I'm using it as my shell. "How 
do I do X accessibly with Orca?" is a different matter, but not 
everything that one is uncertain about is accessibility or 
blindness-related.

It is not OK to expect those of us frustrated by off-topic messages to 
just delete them and move on. Universalize that principle and community 
loses meaning, with everyone posting whatever they want anywhere.

It is not OK to post off-topic and invite responses off-list. If the 
initial post is OT, and if there is a request for keeping the list on 
topic, saying "this is off-topic, so please respond off-list" 
demonstrates to me that the principle of the list is being knowingly 
disrespected.

Now, I'm not trying to be the topic fascist here. I think that strictly 
sticking with a topic and allowing no divergence is as bad as diverging 
all the time. I don't believe people should quake in fear or concernn 
that any given post is on or off-topic for a list.

But, come on. This is not the vinux list, and there IS one. I looked 
this morning. If you're interested in vinux vm or whatever, take your 
questions there. If you're interested in knowing about it, subscribe. 
But we've had at least half a dozen messages about it in the last day 
alone. Sure, that's not many, but if we don't react, we tell any new 
users "this is a generic linux community, ask all your questions here, 
don't seek out your distribution's channels that are specifically set up 
for helping you and create another blind community walled garden." 
Seriously, at least from the Ubuntu perspective, I read 
planet.ubuntu.com and they do a ton of work helping forum newbies and 
trying to create a nurturing and supportive environment.

This is not the place for that.. Please respect the efforts of the 
distributions by taking generic requests there, and please respect the 
requests that have been made here several times and let us continue 
discussing issues that are related to Orca.

Thanks. Hopefully I'm not making this post again in another month or two 
because it has been decided that it's been a month, therefore it's OK to 
start going off-topic again.