Freenode #ubuntu* Channels are Too Fragmented, Over-specialised and "on-topic"

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi all!

I'm moving this discussion from this bug report -
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/237852 - which got closed here.

Joel on Software has this to say about Forum fragmentation (
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2004/09/03.html ) :

{{{{
In Usenet, whenever a single newsgroup got too large, it tended to
fork. So from comp we got comp.sys.ibm.pc which split into smaller and
smaller groups like the unloved comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video,
created because people were sick of talking about video drivers on the
main group.

I didn't like forks, because they make discussions less interesting. I
mean, it's bad enough there's a
comp.software.windows.nt.40.microsoft.notepad, does there have to be a
comp.software.windows.nt.40.microsoft.notepad.helpfile.index?
Seriously now.
}}}}

(
I should also note that according to
http://web.archive.org/web/20070218073005/www.neo-tech.com/zero/part5.html
, "Research in the fields of Biology and Anthropology reveals that all
the species and tribes that became extinct did so because of
overspecialisation".
)
A few days ago, I went to #ubuntu-women and had a friendly discussion
with the people there. Then I decided to send this introduction which
I wrote for some time:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-women/2008-June/001544.html

As a result, someone there has mis-quoted, mis-applied and
mis-interpreted my post into believing I was "sexist" and a
run-of-the-mill "troll", and so unsubscribed me. (after my first post)
I logged on to Freenode in order to complain and to try to revert that
irrational punishment, and this is what happened:

1. On #ubuntu , an op informed that it was off-topic there, and that I
should address a more relevant channel, and shortly afterwards he
devoiced me, while I intended to follow his request.

2. On #ubuntu-women, after I say "Hi all!" and said I wanted to
discuss it, someone became an op and asked me to /part, which I did,
reluctantly.

3. On #ubuntu-ops, where I tried to complain about her/him (I think it
was a she), I was told to private-message someone, and then that I
should leave the channel for maintenance, and the private-messsaging
of this guy did not yield any benefit.

4. There didn't seem to be anything I could do on #ubuntu+1 , and I'd
rather not have talked there.

---------------------

The problem as I see it is that the Freenode's #ubuntu* channels are:

1. Too fragmented.

2. Too over-specialised.

3. Too trying to stay on-topic.

4. Having too many short-tempered and abusive ops.

Please fix it. I still have the logs here.

Best regards,

          Shlomi Fish

------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/

Electrical Engineering studies. In the Technion. Been there. Done
that. Forgot a lot. Remember too much.