[OSM-talk] STFU

[Robin Paulson]

On 2013-02-03 10:23, Chris Hill wrote:
> Maybe a few of you braver than the brave, loud-mouthed, armchair
> lawyers should just STFU and give the board a break.

this is an ad hominem [1] and thus an irrelevancy, it aims to discredit 
the people, while ignoring what's being said. can you stick to the 
issue, we're not here to debate personality types?

> When some of you have had as much abuse and hassle in an unpaid job
> they volunteered for, in their spare time, maybe then you would
> understand how hard it is to please all of the people all of the 
> time.
> Impossible is the answer.

you're right, that being the case, how can they claim to represent 
thousands of individuals who take part in OSM? they have no mandate 
whatsoever. some of us entirely reject the idea of any form of 
representation as it is inherently corrupt, no matter how hard the 
representatives try, or how virtuous they are.

> *IF* mistakes have been made, then they are honest mistakes made by
> volunteers who stepped up to the mark to try to make OSM better.
>
> *IF* mistakes have been made, AFAIK no real harm has been done. The
> worst damage so far is to the pompous, over-sensitive "We Must Know
> Everything" brigade who feel offended because they have not been

that's an ad hominem again. can we stick to the point? labelling people 
as pompous is not helpful, it's divisive. i'm not sure what it has to do 
with collecting geodata

> informed of every breath drawn. To them I say: Grow Up. An Open

and an ad hominem again. this time with more orders to behave as you 
demand.

> community doesn't mean getting an email, text, tweet and personal
> letter every time something happens. That's why we have a board - to

firstly, this is a gross exaggeration, no-one asked for that in this 
whole thread.

and secondly, we? who is this we? they don't represent me or most 
others who map, they represent whoever voted for them. how many is that? 
where was the option for "i don't want a board, we don't need 
representing?"

> To the board I say, do your best guys and thank you very much for
> what you do and how you do it. Don't be tempted to pick up the toys
> thrown out of prams by a small group of people. That mistake was made

more personal abuse and insults. why? what are you so angry at? do you 
have to direct it here?

> during licence-change and it just caused more upset. You were elected
> for a term (at least) to do your best, so do it and good luck.
>
> Threats to leave the project remind me of the bullshit thrown around
> during licence-change when hardly anyone actually had the balls to
> follow through. If people are so unhappy then go, but do so quickly
> and quietly and leave the people really interested in OSM to continue
> making the very best map database we can.

chris, i don't know where this email comes from, or why it's here, but 
it's inflammatory, totally inappropriate and unlikely to achieve 
anything positive. if there's a rational argument in there, can you make 
it?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

-- 
robin

http://universitywithoutconditions.ac.nz - Auckland's Free University