From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: emacs stackexchange beta site Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 17:02:21 +0200 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Message-ID: <87a95utjwi.fsf@debian.uxu> References: <874mw5q15w.fsf@debian.uxu> <87a95wy73q.fsf@debian.uxu> <8761gkdto0.fsf@panda.goosenet.in> <877g0zcufb.fsf@debian.uxu> <8761gibwwy.fsf@panda.goosenet.in> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1411225530 28464 80.91.229.3 (20 Sep 2014 15:05:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 15:05:30 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Sep 20 17:05:23 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1XVMDw-00045X-7A for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 20 Sep 2014 17:05:20 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:34932 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XVMDv-0005dq-NH for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 20 Sep 2014 11:05:19 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!goblin3!goblin1!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 84 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: P0uMB9BthHuWo8+BJXB4Mw.user.speranza.aioe.org Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:cfSAAh/pXJwQ6FapuNAOL0wIY60= Mail-Copies-To: never Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:207795 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:100069 Archived-At: Udyant Wig 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