Re: emacs stackexchange beta site

[Emanuel Berg]

Udyant Wig <udyantw@gmail.com> writes:

>> I have already said some of the reasons. Pascal said
>> some of the same things slightly differently, and
>> added some more. In principle, I agree with what he
>> said, though in practice I don't really mind Google
>> spying on me.
>
>  Why do you not mind Google spying on you?

Because this is all public. I enjoy writing this but I
want people to read it as well. If Google want to read
it, they are most welcome :)

> I ask because most of my reading on various fora had
> very vocal participants making known their outrage in
> no uncertain terms. So, I would much appreciate a
> different view on this.

In the FOSS world, there are people with skills with
technology. Then there are people with political
opinions. Then there are combinations: most notably
RMS, but also - what it seems like - Pascal on this
list, and many others, of course.

The people with political opinions, and very limited
techno-skills, often feel (and perhaps rightly so) like
they aren't at the top of the food chain. So they are
all the more vocal politically to make up for it. They
are predictable in that they always have the "right"
opinions and they spend a lot of time being almost
aggressive about it.

> I assume they want participants to be nice and civil
> even while discussing matters technical. Isn't that
> what moderation is all about?

Yes. It is in part even automatized moderation. But I
don't believe in moderation - I believe in a community
where people are free to be moronic, and hopefully, in
time, they won't be, even though they can.

> I do not see the movement toward a GUI future
> abating. Non-GUI fora like Usenet will perpetually be
> the shade under the trees by the road in that future.

The GUI or UI shouldn't matter. A CLI, or otherwise
text-only, is superior to just about any GUI, I
believe. But that shouldn't matter. The material should
just be there, free - if you want to access it through
a GUI I don't have any problem with that, as long as I
can access the same material not using a GUI. Why fight
about it?

> I take it that "extended discussions" are "not
> constructive" and hence get "closed".

Yes, again, I don't want anyone to have opinions about
that. Let everyone and anyone themselves decide that.

> I wrote in comp.lang.c recently that I used to spend
> some time every now and then going through the
> archives of Usenet with Google's old interface. It
> had been a fascinating experience every time. But
> with the upgrade to the new JS-heavy interface, such
> exploration is hindered by its ease of use.

That always the case. Never do new things. Only do
improvements to old things.

> Such a system or its variants are in widespread use
> on many fora, e.g. on Reddit, where the voting system
> tends to push popular answers to the top of a thread,
> but which may or may not be sound or valid.

Yes, that is functional in that sense. But: the most
popular answer isn't by definition the best. Also, it
makes people neurotic and they start thinking in lines
of reputation, instead of thinking in lines "does this
answer make sense?" which is much more creative and
relevant.

-- 
underground experts united