Greetings,
(trimmed to -general, tho I don't know if it'll really help)
* James Keener (jim@jimkeener.com) wrote:
> > To many of us, we absolutely are a community. Remember, there are people
> > here who have been around for 20+ years, of which many have become close
> > friends, having started working on PostgreSQL as a hobby. We have always
> > seen the project as a community of like-minded technologists, and welcome
> > others that wish to join, whether just to ask a single question or to hang
> > around for the next 20 years. I do see your viewpoint, but I would counter
> > that coming here for help (for example) is quite different from calling
> > tech support at a vendor.
>
> I fail to see how that makes everyone here part of a community anymore than
> I'm part of the "community" of regulars at a bar I walk into for the first
> time.
Does the bartender get to kick you out if you get into a fight? Or if
you're rude or inappropriate towards the waitress? Yup, doesn't matter
if it's the first time you were in the bar or not.
> As I said, the rules can and should apply within the list, but applying
> them outside the list is odd and wreaks of authoritarianism.
This is more akin to an argument that the bartender can't ban you if you
got into a fight outside the bar- but it falls flat because, yeah,
they can. Is the bartender likely to ban you because you made one rude
comment or said something on twitter that wasn't about their bar?
Probably not, but it doesn't mean it's not within their right to do so
if they found it particularly concerning (such as threats made against a
regular to the bar or such).
Ultimately, I do tend to agree with the other points made on this thread
that we end up throwing up a lot of 'straw men' attacks and that
analogies tend to not work out too well in the end, but that's part of
why we have a committee made up of reasonable people to consider a
particular complaint and address it, or not, as appropriate.
Thanks!
Stephen
