The Story of Steve Jobs - An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale

[Richard Gaskin]

The Ubuntu forums are perhaps the most restrictive I've ever 
participated in, even more than the old CompuServe forums where users 
were required to use their real names in an attempt to maintain a 
professional tone for conversations.

The Ubuntu forums are governed by a Code of Conduct, which describes 
what is really just pretty much what Emily Post might suggest for polite 
dinner conversation.

Among the general reminders of basic good manners in a diverse community 
of people with equally diverse opinions, the Ubuntu CoC goes even 
further to prohibit using pejorative terms to describe software 
products, companies, or their users (e.g. "MicroSloth", "iSheep" and 
"Phandroids").

When I first joined the Ubuntu forums I found it almost off-putting to 
see the occasional warning for posts that stray from the CoC.

But over time I've come to appreciate the unusually high signal-to-noise 
ratio there.  The Ubuntu forums are completely devoid of flame wars, and 
the participants are free to discuss darn near anything they like as 
long as it doesn't promote illegal activity or insult anyone, including 
makers or users of other software, because that would reflect poorly on 
the Ubuntu project and undermine their efforts to provide a welcoming 
environment for people from all backgrounds.

The one exception for topics there is politics.  Verboten in the Ubuntu 
forums, and I can't say I disagree:

In my decades of participating in online discussion, I've never yet seen 
a single person whose vote was change by a forum post.

But in stark contrast, I have seen a good many flame wars stem from such 
posts, sometimes escalating to dominate the board, creating a stream 
that can turn the signal-to-noise ratio negative pretty quickly.

There is no shortage of online venues for political discussion.  Let's 
use and enjoy those.

But there is only one use-livecode list, so let's please use and enjoy 
it for what it is, a place to discuss using LiveCode.

<http://xkcd.com/386/>

:)

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com