Re: Response from Dom

From: der Mouse (mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA)
Date: Sat May 11 2002 - 20:12:55 EDT

  • Next message: Alessandro Baretta: "Re: Response from Dom"

    > Firstly, I must point out to you that the overwhelming majority of
    > free software projects are not democracies; rather they are
    > meritocracies.

    Agreed. But

    > Meritocracies are good things,

    Well, they _can be_ good things. In a situation (such as real-world
    politics) where the "merit" part of "meritocracy" is ill-defined to the
    extent that there isn't even any core definition that approximately
    everyone can accept, trying to do a meritocracy either ends up
    hopelessly confused or amounts, in practice, to a dictatorship by
    whoever gets to define "merit".

    > especially in the free software community where we

    ...don't have much trouble deciding on "merit". :-)

    > I was mad at David. I flamed him. I felt better. It's hard to
    > argue against that.

    Well, just because _you_ felt better doesn't mean that it was good for
    anyone or anything, even including you. (Not everything that makes you
    feel better is good for you.) Indeed, I have trouble thinking of any
    instance where a flame has had a good effect that could not have been
    better achieved without flaming.

    > If you go around being nice to people, you find out that you're
    > generally getting more help than you think you deserve.

    This is *so* true. Or at least I've found it has been in my life. The
    Threefold Law is not just a pretty saying - nor is its applicability
    restricted to magick.

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