RFC: Make political discussion off-topic by rule (was: America ...)

[Drew Van Zandt]

I hate to agree, but I must.  While political discussion that's
obviously strongly related to Linux seems fine to me (e.g. DMCA and
similar), the lengthy and frequent posts that are obviously not at all
Linux related have gotten quite irritating.  If you start one of these
threads with someone, TAKE IT OFF THE LIST and limit it to email
between the two (or three, etc.) of you.  If someone else wants to
join in they'll reply to the original OT and you can start CCing them.

--DTVZ

On Sun, 9 Jan 2005 12:54:14 -0500 (EST), Benjamin Scott
<bscott at ntisys.com> wrote:
> 
>   Well, once again, someone decided to barge onto the list, post some random
> political diatribe that had nothing to do with Linux, and it spun into a 30+
> message thread that had nothing to do with Linux, and indeed, little to do
> with anything other then general complaining.
> 
>   The long, obscure technical debates we get sucked into are bad enough.
> This is too much.
> 
>   I hereby submit the following Request For Comment to the membership of
> this list: Should we make political diatribes like this explicitly off-topic
> on gnhlug-discuss?
> 
>   Rationale:
> 
>   1. Such discussion causes the legitimate Linux-and-FOSS-related discussion
> to get lost in the noise.
> 
>   2. There are many, far more appropriate forums for this type of thing,
> both on-line and off.  Such discussion belongs there.
> 
>   3. This list provides a captive audience, which joined because of
> interests in Linux and NH, and not politics.
> 
>   4. The argument that "This effects Linux because politics..." is bogus
> because it can be generalized for anything.  Example: "I can use Linux to
> control my toaster, so let's talk about bread-making recipes."  The fact
> that you can draw a line from N to Linux does not mean N is related to
> Linux.
> 
>   5. Unlike most other off-topic threads, political discussions of this type
> tend to be loud, lengthy, and limitless, turning a minor, one-time annoyance
> into a repeated, persistent problem.
> 
>   If I get sufficient response, we can put this to a vote and we can have
> our very first Official Rule in GNHLUG.
> 
>   I was *really* hoping it wouldn't come to this, but apparently some people
> are too far too eager to push their pet political agendas to be able to act
> like responsible, polite people.
> 
>   If someone really wants it, I'm sure we can create politics at gnhlug.org to
> give those interested a forum for this kind of thing.  (But see point #2
> above.)
> 
>   Respectfully yours,
> 
> --
> Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
> | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do  |
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