Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Andrew <afrayedknot AT thefrayedknot.armory.com>]

> 
> I was hoping his first "last" message would be the last, but it is becoming
> very tiring. I understand erics will feel even more tired of seing personal
> attacks, drivel, and attempts at twisting history. I wouldn't call blocking
> that user censorship, as he himself has stated many times he no longer wants
> anything with us and thinks we are heading for the precipice.
> 

I give up. I'll respond...
I will be as unbiased as I can, and I apologize in advance if I fail.
It is not my intention to blame any one person for anything, but rather
to lend a perspective on what we can do, as a group, to move on...


Whats been said has been said. Its should be more than obvious that
some peoples opinions, recollection and perspectives of the past events
are going to be different than others, that goes for EVERYONE; myself,
eric sandall, seth, hamish, eric schabell, you, and everyone else.

No one can go back through the archives and look at what happened and
come to their opinion of whats transpired but themselves. We all have
our own perspective on the past, present and future, and thats fine.
But you also have to aware that everyone else has their own views too,
and they may be different and you have to respect that.

Whats not fine is being unable to take constructive criticism, or
shielding yourself off from someone without at least reading and
considering what they have to say. Hamish may be long winded, but I've
rarely found his facts incorrect. Certainly people's opinions may be
different, but thats a different issue, Im not going to dispute that,
you're entitled to your opinion.

Ive seen several debates go on because not everyone is reading everything
that someone has to say, and just responding anyway. It happens to
be the case that quite often the same things are repeated because it
appears to the original poster (rightly or wrongly) that the responder
didnt get the message the first time.

We've chosen text as our primary medium of communication and one of the
implications of that medium is that you have a choice to either read,
or not read what someone has posted. You owe everyone, even those you
may disagree with, the respect of reading and considering what they have
to say, or remaining agnostic to the issue entirely (and no, agnostic is
not defined as "oh hamish is flaming us again, i'll press the delete
button"). Part of the reason we're here having this conversation today
is because, (IMO) in the past we've made this mistake, and ended up
yelling back and forth over something without hearing the other side.

I do NOT mean to imply that any one person is guilty of this, chances
are, we all are. We're human, we're imperfect, and we lack the ability
to communicate perfectly with one-another. This is the best we have,
and we've got to make the best of it.

At this point, its of no use to try and debate the past over and
over again or dispute minor points, or feed the fire any longer. We're
not getting anywhere.

Its of far greater importance at this point to recognize ones own mistakes,
admit them, try not to repeat them, and move on.

So please, lets all just take a moment, relax, and try to assert some
self discipline. None of us are absolutely correct all the time, we make
mistakes and the best thing I think we can do is to learn from them,
not fight over them, and respect when someone points out our mistakes.
A little kindness goes a long way...

We are never going to "make it" if we sit here pointing the finger at
each other or take offense to criticism. Or try to go on needless witch
hunts burning each other at the stake.

We're not censoring hamish, or anyone else for that matter. If you really
feel that you can't deal with that then my response has been in vain.
But theres this perfectly good tool called procmail and I suggest you learn
to use it.

-Andrew

-- 
__________________________________________________________________________
|Andrew D. Stitt                           | astitt at sourcemage.org    |
|irc: afrayedknot                          | afrayedknot at t.armory.com |
|aim: thefrayedknot or iteratorplusplus    |                             |
|Sorcery Team Lead, Porting Team Lead      |                             |
|Grimoire Guru ham/smgl                    | ftp://t.armory.com          |
|Author and Maintainer of Prometheus       |                             |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------