[OpenID] On the banning of Santosh

[John Kemp]

On Nov 29, 2009, at 2:02 PM, David Fuelling wrote:

> David,
>
> I strongly disagree with your banning of Santosh, if even only for  
> 30 days.

+1

Although I am personally a big fan of "politeness" (as I see it ;), I  
agree strongly with what David F writes below, and would also  
respectfully request that Santosh be reinstated.

- johnk

>  Here's why:
>
> 	• Santosh's "offenses" may seem [insert negative adjective here],  
> but they don't warrant a ban.  Some people construed his remarks a  
> "disrespectful", but this is a relative term.  If Santosh feels some  
> people are stupid, I believe he should be free to voice that  
> opinion.  The person being called stupid is free to disagree or  
> ignore.  Are we really so thin-skinned that we can't handle somebody  
> describing us with a term that we don't like?
>
> 	• This sets a dangerous precedent.  Because a few people chirped in  
> and said they wanted him gone (and you happened to agree), he's now  
> gone?  I respect all of the work you've put into OpenID (especially  
> like setting up these lists), but I don't think that people should  
> be banned for trying to defend themselves, even if it's in an  
> ungraceful way.  I do think that there should be a clear OIDF policy  
> here (for things like spam), but in general I would argue for a  
> policy of freedom -- let people say what they will, no matter how  
> "disrespectful" because one person's "noise" is another person's  
> "signal".
>
> 	• Politeness as a bar for list participation is a bad idea -- the  
> whole idea of politeness is murky, and sometimes being polite  
> discourages technical debate.  Besides, who of use should be the one  
> defining what is polite and what is not?  I would argue nobody  
> should be given that responsibility nor that authority.
>
> 	• Finally, what of the people on this list who have responded to  
> Santosh by calling him a variety of names, including  
> "disrespectful"?  Should they not be banned as well, for isn't it  
> "disrespectful" to call somebody "disrespectful"?
>
> I respectfully request that you un-ban Santosh from this list  
> immediately so we can put this episode behind us.  If there are  
> those on this list who do not like what Santosh has to say, then  
> they are free to ignore his words (though to my above points, I  
> haven't seen much of this happening lately).
>
> Sincerely,
>
> David Fuelling
> sappenin at gmail.com
>
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 7:06 PM, David Recordon  
> <recordond at gmail.com> wrote:
> Having been one of the creators of this list, I've banned Santosh  
> and will remove that ban in 30 days.  Santosh, many people – myself  
> included – have very politely asked you to think about your postings  
> within this community and to be more respectful.  Obviously you've  
> continued to ignore us.
>
> John, MarkMail has a bunch of awesome analysis tools for many  
> different open source mailing lists. http://markmail.org/search/?q=openid
>
> --David
>
>
>
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