Re: Re: Please share your linux experiences....

[Mrinal Kalakrishnan <mrinal@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Atul Chitnis typed:
> I do not have anything against licensing issues - I have something against
> the way they are being discussed. Have you seen even one of the people in
> those "discussions" give an inch?

That is just because they strongly believe in what they are preaching.
I don't ever think that anybody can come to conclusions in the
licensing issue. It's just each person viewpoint, so they don't really
need to `give an inch'. And by all of them giving their side of the
argument, I (and probably the average member of this list) have
benefitted. I knew virtually *nothing* about licensing issues before
this, and now I have gained a lot of knowledge. So I think that such
discussions should not be discouraged, as the community has a lot to
gain from them.

> You will find this hard to understand since you have not been part of the
> background discussions in the past, but I had suggested resource lists to
> be put up on the website, pointing to commeon questions and answers given.
> This was deemed as "unnecessary" because such resources already exist
> (which is untrue - they do not address even half of what people are
> asking). Unless such resources are created, people will keep asking the
> same questions!

This was the Linux India FAQ project, if I remember right. Yes, I
agree that this project should continue even if such resources already
exist. Atleast, there should be a collection of FAQs, which point to
the already existing resources.  

> Thank you for asking. My ideal picture of the LIH list is one of a
> *source* of information that is then culled and indexed in a user-friendly
> way (not "refer the archives") so that people can *use* this knowledge.

OK, this may sound pretty ambitious, but I think the LI FAQ project
should be extended - such that every single relevant question and
solution on the list should be indexed under various categories of
questions, so that instead of people saying `refer the archives', they
can start saying - go to http://www.linux-india.org/knowledgebase/, or
something of that sort. (Thinking about this, has PHP and MySQL been
introduced on the site?) 

> Understand something. I would like to see results. The way the lists
> are operating today, they are unmanaged chaos and virtually no one
> takes part.  Want proof? Ask Thaths for the member count on all the
> lists (per list).  How many of these people participate? How many
> lurk? And how many drop out?

Are you saying that it's chaotic because no one takes part? Come on,
you can't expect every person to take part actively on the list. There
are more than 1000 members (I presume) on the LIH list, and it is just
not possible for all the 1000 to participate.

And people most of the times get their questions answered - even if
its only "refer the archives". It's not like no one takes part -
some people ask questions, and others do answer it.

> I dropped out of LIH because my presence there was causing grief to
> people - because of my connection to PCQ and other factors. It was
> causing me grief as well, because instead of creating the resources
> that people actually needed, LIH depends on a few people to
> continuously give the same answers to the same questions. That is
> not knowledge or resource building - that is insanity.

Then you should have done something about it, started off some project
which would change the way LIH works. Something that would save the
same people from answering the same questions, instead of just
dropping out, because your dropping out doesn't help the LI community
the least bit. You didn't make your point clear by just dropping out.

> Understand something - all of you. Thanks to the attention Linux is
> getting worldwide, and especially here in India, you are all actors
> on a stage, and you have a huge audience watching you. Your
> behaviour (i.e.  ability to discuss something and come to a
> conclusion) reflects on Linux and the Linux community as a whole.

I have no problems with anybody's abilities to discuss things. As for
drawing conclusions, it is just not possible to draw conclusions for
certain issues, and I think it should be left to the reader to draw
his/her own conclusions. You can't expect conclusions to be drawn on
the list for every single thread that comes up.

-- 
Mrinal Kalakrishnan <mrinal@xxxxxxxxx> (PGP:B1E86F5B) http://listen.to/mrinal
- - - - = ( Redhat Linux 6.1 ) = - - - - = ( Kernel 2.2.12-20 ) = - - - -
CIVIL ENGINEERS do it in the dirt