Re: Take a cup of tea :-)

[Marcus Brinkmann]

At Sun, 13 Aug 2006 22:07:14 +0200,
Guillaume FORTAINE <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> It clearly appears that some people are very interested in functional 
> programming. We have people who love action too ( *mad coders* :-) ) => 
> thinkers/workers, the best alchemy ever ... :-)
> 
> It is time for us to create our *think tank*, my band of brothers :-)

Guillaume,

I have to ask you to consider your involvement in this project.  For
some time now, you are posting messages that only have a tangible
relationship to the Hurd.  You also expressed your dismissal for the
Hurd project (you said you consider it dead).  On the other hand, you
have contacted people outside of the project, giving them the
impression that you represent it (you showed us one email you sent to
a researcher asking him to help "us").

This leaves me to wonder what the purpose of your continued (mis-)
communication is.  There are a couple of things I would like you to
do, for the sake of everybody involved:

First of all, please follow the netiquette (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netiquette).  It seems to me that you
have forwarded private communication to the list, possibly without
consent from the original sender.  If you have done so, then please
notice that is considered impolite, and only justifiable under extreme
circumstances (for example, abuse).

Second, be up-front with what your intentions are.  State clearly the
purpose of your communication.  Do you want to let us know about a
certain technique or project?  Do you solicite advice, or opinion?  Do
you want to help us in the design or other project-related issues?
Without knowing what you plan to do, the random spurts of your
sometimes interesting, sometimes disturbing stream of consciousness is
at best confusing, at worst doing considerable harm in the
relationships between people and projects.  There is plenty of
evidence of the former and some of the latter.

Being up-front with your intentions includes letting us know (and
discussing with the group beforehand) when you intend to solicite
advice from other people or projects on behalf of the group (ie, if
you want to represent the group).

Third, it is considered to be bad style to dismiss a project in its
own forums, and to attempt to draw away resources away from it to
other projects by using its very infrastructure.  I do not know if
this is your goal, but some statements have the appearance that this
may be some of your intent (at least since you said that you consider
the Hurd to be dead).  If you disagree with the Hurd, that's fine.  If
you want people to be aware of your disagreement, it's fine to send a
note to the list with a reference.  But if you want to work on
something different than the Hurd, start your own project.  The
internet is big enough for everybody, and if it is free software,
there are plenty of hosting services to get you started (let me know
if you need pointers).

Thanks,
Marcus