[MPlayer-dev-eng] uoti

[Rich Felker]

On Wed, Feb 28, 2007 at 06:06:30PM +0200, Ivan Kalvachev wrote:
> 2007/2/28, Michael Niedermayer <michaelni at gmx.at>:
> >Hello commrades
> >
> >ive had a long disscussion with diego on the phone, about the mess,
> >uoti, the voting, policy, and other things
> 
> I don't like phone discussion, mainly because they don't provide you
> with enough time to check the facts.

Email discussions don't either. I know from experience that when
there's a hot topic I'm upset about, I just hit reply and bang on the
"flame" key (http://brightrain.aerifal.cx/~dalias/images/leetkb.jpg :)
until I'm sick of it. Do you honestly think anyone flaming actually
goes back and does the research about the topic they're flaming about?

IMO phone is much better for this because you're reminded that the
person you're talking to is a real person with a real life,
motivations, attachments, emotions, etc. and not just some abstract
argument that you despise on philosophical grounds. With friends I
speak to on both phone and irc/email, I've only once or twice EVER
flamed someone over the phone. Over email? ..... Well, you do the
count... if you actually perform research as a part of flaming. :)

> I don't see anything fuzzy and unclear. Even one break of the rule is
> enough reason to revert.

Are you sure? I think all of us have broken the rules many times. I
agree that Uoti is an egotistical jerk and often a troll, and that
most of the time I hate his guts -- that's why I was quick to snap at
him and content to see him get the boot. But some sort of justice
should prevail. Justice is more important than democracy^Wmob rule.

Ultimately the policy is just a statement of the expectations of the
developer community. If you deviate from it in minor ways, and not
often, you can probably expect little ill effects (but nothing is
certain). If you deviate from it in major ways, many developers are
likely to get extremely mad. But the reason should not be "because you
broke the policy" but rather because the act was already something
that people would naturally frown upon, and the policy just reflects
that so as to give newcomers an idea what to expect about which
actions people will likely accept or frown upon. Nothing is certain in
matters like this.

If anything, I'd like to see a direction in the policy that encourages
more mutual respect between developers and less flaming and
accusations. And, if someone does something that pisses you off,
please explain why you're unhappy with it rather than just using the
"it violates policy" excuse. After all, whatever's in the policy
should have a fundamental reason behind it, and that reason, not the
policy, is the basis for discontentment.

I think I've written too much now so I'm going to shut up. I hope we
can begin to put this nasty chapter behind us and move forward. And
Uoti, please stop fucking shit up, okay??

Rich