On Mon, 30 Aug 2010, at 12:18, Per Andersson wrote:
> mixed, we have to change something. Why should our ways of communicate be
> excluded from change?
Regarding changes in how we communicate, why is this discussion suddenly in
english? This is a swedish FOSS group (but I doubt we would disallow non-swedes
from joining). The use of english here could be seen as excluding those
participants that prefer to communicate in swedish.
While it is unlikely that the use of english here actually is a problem, it
does illustrate the point that too much political correctness can lead to
absurd situations (i.e., we are swedes, so why suddenly speak english here?).
> This is exactly the kind of arch stereotype image of the
> hacker/free software/geek/nerd movement that I think is bad for our group
> constitution, and it probably scares people away or make them laugh at us, or
> both.
Well, that web comic is by a nerd, for other nerds.
What's the problem with that? All groups have internal jokes.
The problem of getting more people of different social backgrounds to join the
FOSS world is certainly a difficult one to solve without a big dollar budget.
But that doesn't mean that those of us that already are in the FOSS world
must be forbidden to poke fun at ourselves (because we can still have a
friendly attitude towards persons that are not the norm in our group).
> I myself have issues with thinking that I don't know enough to participate
> in free software, probably because of this level of elite thinking within the
> community.
I know for a fact that many of my peers in the community have more
knowledge/skills than me. And while that is not good for my ego, it doesn't
prevent me from increasing my knowledge/skills and having fun, which are my
fundamental motivations (and should be for everyone).
And it can be a little scary as a beginner to join any type of community, not
just those in the FOSS world.
So I fail to see why we should stop the tradition of having a strong dedication
to our craft, or stop being passionate about high quality software (which are
some of the things that people refer to with this "elite thinking" labeling).
/Joakim
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Received on 2010-08-30