[TAG] help

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Sun, Jan 22, 2006 at 08:45:29AM -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
> Quoting Benjamin A. Okopnik (ben at linuxgazette.net):
> > queue" conveys that it's _not_ a queue but only resembles it in a
> > certain manner. 
> 
> Presumbly, in _this_ manner:
> 
>   *THIS IS NOT A MAILING LIST*.
> 
>   It's implemented as one, with a not-insignificant amount of extra bits
>   around the edges, because that's the easiest way to do it technically.
> 
>   But operationally, it's much more like a tech support ticket queue:
>   people with questions open a ticket, and those of us who work that
>   queue comment on it,
> 
> Now, I have no special powers of interpretation, being just the bit
> janitor around here, but, going by the wording provided, that sounds just
> about precisely the same as Mikkel's attitude to me -- or, perhaps a
> little more charitably, Mikkel's take on things is an inevitable and
> obvious consequence of our assuming the role Jay claims is our intent.

I made no claims about intent.  I was speaking to structure.  I can
only infer intent from that, as I was not really around when that
intent was discussed.

But The Answer G{uy,ang} still is not a community, in the sense that a
newsgroup or traditional mailing list is, and that was by design at the
time.

If a concensus is reached that that's what TAG should become, that's
fine.  But one doesn't change a rifle into a shotgun for the hell of
it; you wouldn't want to hunt boar with a 12ga.

> > Bull-headed ignorance is a law unto itself
> 
> Quite.  You can't prevent the Mikkels of the world from behaving like
> shitheads -- but you _can_ keep firmly in mind that you're a technical 
> _community_, not a friggin' free-of-charge technical support queue, and
> then act accordingly.

And yet, as noted, since the querents *purposefully* do not see each
other nor subscribe, we are not, we haven't been, and if we decide we
want to be, then that's a fundamental change.

> The logic of technical communities revolves around the key "Why are we
> here?" question.  Of course, it is in our case primarily to publish a
> magazine (a _community_ magazine), but secondarily it is also to
> participate _in_ that technical community.  Which in turn means that
> we're happiest about questions and answers carried out in manners that
> assist thousands of people going forward, and therefore about public
> questions and answers much more than private ones.

Yup.  Which is why we publish the results.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
Designer                          Baylink                             RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates        The Things I Think                        '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA      http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 647 1274

	A: No.
	Q: Should I include quotations after my message body?