What's happening on ubuntu-users , and why it's normal

[Peter Garrett]

I've just spent some time reading through recent threads, and decided
to throw in some thoughts about the ubuntu-users list over the last few
years.

Just to forestall the inevitable: yes, I know about sounder ;-)

Some people with long memories might recall that I used to answer quite
a few questions here, once upon a time. ;-) Lately other projects and
concerns have meant that I have not contributed much.

This post will probably be seen as off-topic by some... So be it.

I think that we are seeing the usual evolution of a list as the project
becomes ever more popular. In 2004-6 (roughly), this list really was
mostly about technical help and discussion, and I think the
"demographic" was *similar* to that on, say, a Debian list. As Ubuntu
has become more and more popular, we have seen an influx of people who
don't come from the "traditional" Linuxish/*nixish backgrounds. The
kinds of questions have changed, and the level of discussion has perhaps
dropped in quality somewhat.

That's a nice way of saying that the signal-to-noise ratio has
deteriorated ;-)

Fortunately, there are some excellent posters who continue to provide
good advice and help. Inevitably, there are now more of the other
variety than there used to be.

The reason for this post may not be immediately obvious, so here is my
take on what is seemingly happening. (This appears to be true for other
communication channels like IRC as well).

*  We are going through the period during which a relatively new
project sorts out what it is actually for, and who actually fits that
need.

* We are likely to see some people disappear, because the nature of the
"community" has changed in ways that don't fit their perceptions of
what "should" be happening, or their interests no longer fit the
changes.

* We are going to suffer from the loss of people who are simply tired
of repeating the same answers again and again. If you spend enough time
trying to help, you eventually get to a stage where it often seems
better not to say anything, rather than be seen as "arrogant" or "a net
nanny" or a "self-appointed expert", and so on....

* All of this is perfectly normal and part of the expected changes in a
large project that has a wide variety of participants.

* Lest this be seen as a long-winded illumination of the obvious - the
point of sending it is to try to summarise the reasons for recent
*cough* long threads dealing mostly with very "human" issues - like
"why are we getting irritated by a few loud and obnoxious posters with
no clues", and so on.

To those who dislike terse and to-the-point answers: get over it. Those
terse but accurate answers are the life blood of a project, and usually
come from the people who know the most, and are willing to communicate
their knowledge.

To those who are used to giving terse-but-correct answers: Ubuntu is
not Slackware or Debian, and a few more warm-fuzzies won't hurt you when
you deliver your knowledge ;-)

It is interesting to note that a number of those who have been singled
out for criticism by complainers in the recent sagas are actually the
very people who make this list worth reading.

So in summary: 

* the hard-line "teach a man to fish" crowd - sit back and laugh at
yourselves a bit.

* the "people on this list are rude" crowd - read a little bit about
Unix and Linux history, and stop expecting everyone to be polite all
the time.

Ubuntu doesn't mean "don't tread on anyone's toes" - if your toes hurt,
think a bit about why, and you might come to some interesting
conclusions.

Here endeth the sermon ;-)   

( For those with limited humour - this is a good-natured post from an
Ubuntu supporter who thinks storms in teacups are entertaining, but not
to be taken so seriously.)

-- 
Peter Garrett <peter.garrett at optusnet.com.au>
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