Re: [Sheflug] Organisation of Sheflug

[Bill Best <bill [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

James Mears wrote:

> To try and answer the questions:
>
> #1. Are people being censored. If so why?
>
> ANSWER: I am not aware of any email posts actually being censored. I 
> don't think this is possible anyway. I know that Richard has from time 
> to time kicked people off the list (rightly or wrongly) but as owner of 
> the list he has seen this as his right to do so.
Hi

I think that there's room enough for a city the size of Sheffield to 
easily accommodate two LUG's both with their different flavours and 
personalities.  To generalise:

Sheflug: formal, academic, politically conservative

SlugBug: anarchic, friendly, politically progressive

It is a shame that we cannot collectively benefit from synergies between 
the two.  I have very much enjoyed the lectures by RMS, Ted Tso and the 
Linux Seminar at Hillsborough - and I hope that some Shefluggers will 
feel motivated to attend the skillshare day that some SlugBug 
subscribers are putting some effort into organising for next month: 
http://www.aktivix.org/

However, I feel compelled to address the issue of posts that have indeed 
been hidden on the Sheflug list - this has compounded the current 
problem because we now do not have the original posts to go back and review.

The SlugBug/Sheflug fork occurred because a subscriber to this list had 
the impertinence to politely ask (see below) for a Sheflug IRC channel - 
which, I believe, in the end has subsequently been set-up.  The post 
should be available here but is mysteriously unavailable:

http://krom.meiring.org.uk/sheflug/mailarchive/2003/07/msg00020.html

In fact the entire 'IRC Channel' thread (starting 09/07/2003 'IRC 
Channel') has been made inaccessible but I have the emails stored 
locally so I am able to summarise.

I think that Richard objected to the use of #sheflug without his 
permission and said he was against the idea of IRC due to 'security 
issues'.  Richard complained to the poster below off-list who felt he 
had been treated heavy-handedly - anybody who has been chastised by 
Richard for top-posting may know the feeling.  Some people sided with 
the poster below and so they set-up a new group, but SlugBug has never 
been a Siberia for 'Sheflug dissidents'.

Of course, Richard is allowed to run Sheflug in whatever way he chooses 
- and his hard work is acknowledged often - but surely a _Linux_ Users 
Group should be committed to a few basic precepts of open-ness in its 
communications because, regardless of whether we lean towards Sheflug or 
Slugbug, we _collectively_ believe that open ways of working and 
communicating produce the best results.  If we don't believe this then 
why on earth use Linux at all?

Cheers

Bill

PS

If you don't hear from me again it's because I've been banned.


Beneath wrote:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Sheflug] IRC channel
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 16:21:44 +0000

> Hi,
>
> Umm, my name is Daniel and i've attended the last two LUG meetings in
> Sheffield (i cannot get to those in Bakewell).
>
> Last meeting, there was some talk of establishing an IRC channel for
> the LUG.  I've decided to start one on irc.linux.com. I chose this
> group of servers because they seem to be the most responsive and
> reliable of the ones i tried, and the server i frequent myself -
> irc.aniverse.com - isn't too relevant in subject for a Linux User
> Group :)
>
> So, if you point your client to irc.linux.com, and join #sheflug, i'll
> be there while online, and hopefully other attendees of the LUG will
> be too.
>
> Richard, do you think it would be a good idea to put information about
> this on the website?
>
> I'd expect it to be at least a couple of weeks before any decent
> amount of people start frequenting the channel, but if you're on IRC a
> lot anyway, drop yourself into the channel and hang about. People are
> more likely to stay if there is actually someone to talk to in there
> :)
>
>  - Daniel
> ___________________________________________________________________
>
> Sheffield Linux User's Group -
> http://www.sheflug.co.uk/mailfaq.html
>
>   GNU the choice of a complete generation.
___________________________________________________________________

Sheffield Linux User's Group -
http://www.sheflug.co.uk/mailfaq.html

 GNU the choice of a complete generation.