[Ambassadors] Red Hat's investments (was Re: Going passive)

[Robert 'Bob' Jensen]

----- "Máirín Duffy" <duffy at fedoraproject.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 2010-11-24 at 16:34 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> > 
> > I think this is a good demonstration of something important.   If
> we
> > have a guideline that wants to make sure everyone is civil towards
> each
> > other and do not engage in name calling, we need to think about what
> we
> > need to do if someone does violate it deliberately.  Policy without
> > teeth might as well as not exist.
> 
> I wrote the list administrators. When nothing happened, I added new
> rules to procmail.
> 

It's a demonstration of something very important. The first part of this email is my frustration, you can skip it if you like, the second part is an attempt to be productive.

The guideline, be excellent to each other, means nothing on it's own. Every single one of us will and can have a different idea what it means. Do we really want Fedora tied to a saying, be excellent to each other, from a movie about two "metalhead slackers" some would say stoners? If so why not "Fag" from the scene where one thinks the other is dead then they hug? We could mix it up a little and throw in a couple "Dude"s which historically also has negative connotations. Surely we would all find "Fag" to be offensive in today's more tolerant society, I know I do. Sure they are poor examples, but we should remember how "be excellent to each other" came to be, "Make something up" is the line that leads up to it.

As I said in anther email "be excellent to each other" is all we have to work with at this time. I guess an original idea was not available or thought unnecessary. Perhaps it is just a starting point that can be used to begin a dialog to create an alternative. So what is being excellent? First and foremost I would have honesty. No one likes to be lied to or lied about. Second tolerance, toward others that may have a different view than you, or may not say things the way you would. I know about this "tolerance" a fair bit, I don't see it shown very often. What else can we add to make some real guidelines that is not simply a movie quote "Be excellent to each other"?

-- Bob

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|       Robert 'Bob' Jensen        ||       Fedora Unity Founder       |
|       bob at fedoraunity.org        ||      http://fedoraunity.org/     |
|                   http://bjensen.fedorapeople.org/                   |
|                http://blogs.fedoraunity.org/bobjensen                |
|                   http://www.facebook.com/rpjensen                   |
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