[PLUG] Re: LUG-fest [was July 01, 2003 Meeting Announcement]

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Jeme" == Jeme A Brelin <jeme at brelin.net> writes:

Kurt> However, it may be possible for us,(PDXLUG), to better
Kurt> differentiate between our groups which I will suggest to PDXLUG.

Jeme> I still haven't heard any kind of reason WHY you should
Jeme> differentiate yourselves.  The only thing that is confusing is
Jeme> the name.  Otherwise, the "groups" are identical and have large
Jeme> overlap in membership, the same goals, and the same (read: no)
Jeme> organizational structure.

Jeme> So why differentiate yourself?  The only thing that
Jeme> differentiates now is the name and even that doesn't try very
Jeme> hard to be different.

Jeme> So why bother differentiating?  What's the difference?

>From what I've been able to deduce, the people who came to PDXLUG from
PLUG wanted less "noise" on the mailing list.[1] No one really defines
what they mean by noise.  Maybe they think of LUG-like entities as
strictly technical "help" resources, which to me seems too narrow.

The self-declared differentiation at the beginning was that they
wanted the freedom to ban people who they didn't like.  From the
welcome message:

  mailman> Remember we do have the right to refuse service to anyone.[2]

For part of a discussion of that, see:
  <http://www.pdxlug.org/pipermail/pdxlug/2003-January/000077.html>

A lot of the "resistance" to this topic on the PDXLUG mailing list has
been to any discussion of the naming issue or of "governance" type
questions (e.g. what does it mean to be a 'group'?  how are decisions
made?  etc).  I can understand not wanting to help discuss those
problems, but I don't understand not wanting the discussions to take
place at all.  And where else but the group mailing list are you going
to find people interested in contributing to those discussions?


[1] It seems somewhat contradictory that one of the people who
    mentioned this as a reason was Kurt, and yet he is evidently still
    subscribed to the "noisy" PLUG list.  Maybe it's because PDXLUG
    isn't seen as a fully viable replacement yet.

[2] It may just be a figment of my imagination, but I have always
    assumed that you, Jeme, were their (not mine) archetypal example
    of someone to refuse service.

-- 
Russell Senior         ``shtal latta wos ba padre u prett tu nashtonfi
seniorr at aracnet.com      mrlosh''  -- Bashgali Kafir for ``If you have
                         had diarrhoea many days you will surely die.''