On Sunday 21 June 2009 13:18, Rui Araújo wrote:

> This is the rockbox mailing list which is hosted on their site and I
> think it is strange to see peolple just whining about being told to
> follow the guidelines.

You replied to my posting with this, and I wasn't whining - I was pointing out
how I thought it might be better for everyone if the rules were less strict.
In fact, I don't see anyone whining about being told to follow the rules;
just some people saying that the rules and their enforcement make the place
unpleasant enough that they avoid posting, or leave altogether.

I accept that it's entirely up to the list manager/s to decide how the list is
run, who is allowed to post, what formats, languages, styles etc are
permitted.

In contrast to many other open source project mailing lists I've seen, Rockbox
seems to put people off both contributing to the discussions, and indeed
staying on the lists, because of the way the guidelines are enforced, and I'm
simply trying to point out that I think this is not good for the project,
hopefully not what the project managers want, and I believe could be improved
by simply running the lists differently.

> be nice, use correct English as much as possible and don't top post.
>
> Is this so hard?

No.

On the other hand, is it so hard for the people running the project / lists to
accept that different people have different styles of communication, and it
may be in their own interests to accept a wider group of contributors to the
lists, and make the place a friendlier and more encouraging environment for
people to discuss Rockbox, instead of insisting on "following the rules" more
strongly than any other list I've seen, to the extent that some people are
frightened to post, and others leave in disgust.

> The real problem is that people find it anoying to be remembered of
> this rules when they shouldn't.

Agreed. But that is human nature. As a few other people have pointed out in
this thread, many people don't read manuals, don't read guidelines, don't
know how to use their mail client, and don't care as much as you do about
rules. That is simply a fact about people and the way they behave.

I'm not condoning it; I don't approve of it; but I do accept it as the way
people are.

I think the number of postings we see on these lists which really do deserve
either to be ignored or told "no, we don't port to new players on request"
etc. is very small, and I simply believe it would be better to accept that
people have varied ways of communicating, and allow them to do so on these
lists, than to restrict the group of people who discuss Rockbox to the
apparently rather small minority who conform to the posting requirements.

> There are guidelines. They should be followed. Period. No need to cry
> now , ok? :D

I'm merely suggesting that guidelines could be changed, if that is for the
benefit of more people than keeping them the way they are.

Antony.

-- 
Perfection in design is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but 
rather when there is nothing left to take away.
 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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