[squeak-dev] I Want Keith Hodges Banned

Michael Haupt mhaupt at gmail.com
Wed Feb 17 07:55:35 UTC 2010


Chris,

my short answer is "please, no". Explanations below. :-)

On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 1:53 AM, Chris Cunnington
<smalltalktelevision at gmail.com> wrote:
> It's not that Keith is calling Germans dictators, which makes me ill.

His doing so is rather obscene indeed. Some people just don't get 20th
century history.

> It's because he's getting in the way of what I want. I want this board and its
> mandate to move to its stated goals as fast as it can: new license; more
> Andreas wizardry, better image.

And how would banning Keith change that? In other words, is he
physically getting in your way, or just a nuisance? Is he just
distracting you, or really actively hindering you from doing what you
want?

In yet other words: would using an e-mail filter reduce the noise and
help? If so, why ban him?

> Keith Hodges has boundless energy for conflict. This has been going on for a
> couple of months now. He lies low and then he catches the ear of some people
> and energy from some very talented board members gets drained into the sands
> of nothing. This is a cycle that is going to repeat itself like a sine wave.

Everyone is free to read or ignore those never-ending cyclic rants.

Opinions are beyond control, and it is a great achievement that people
have the freedom to utter them as they see fit, even though such
utterances may be considered trollish. I'm not saying there are no
borders that ought not to be crossed, but frankly, Keith has, albeit
arguably trollish at times, not yet done anything that is totally
off-limits. He's been uttering his opinion, which many disagree with,
but there are others that agree with (parts of) it.

So why ban him? What *good* would it be?

> I want him banned.

I think that a community, whatever form it has and whatever shape it
might be in, declares moral bankrupcy if it artificially shuts up
people that are annoying.

Are we really so weak yet? Are we in such a sorry state? Nah, come on.

That Google talk you mentioned aside, I think the old usenet principle
"don't feed the troll" is the way to go for those that believe they
see one.

Best,

Michael



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