Re: Org Community

["Loyall, David" <david.loyall@nebraska.gov>]

FWIW, I believe that the org-mode community should do what we can to oblige Jambunathan's request, even if/when we're not legally required to do so.  I think that we should do the same for any human who wants to withdraw from an endeavor.  (Don't each of you feel that your code is a part of you?)

Supposing that the group agrees that the code should be removed somehow, then at that point we can think about the most orderly way to do it.  What happens, technically, if we mark it all as deprecated?

I hope this helps,
Dave Loyall

-----Original Message-----
From: emacs-orgmode-bounces+david.loyall=nebraska.gov@gnu.org [mailto:emacs-orgmode-bounces+david.loyall=nebraska.gov@gnu.org] On Behalf Of Scott Randby
Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2013 12:02 PM
To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
Subject: [O] Org Community

Last September, I attended a talk given by the lead developers of a prominent free software project. One of the developers spoke about the importance of maintaining a friendly community that does not drive people away. In particular, the developer emphasized that the community is more important than the code.

The org community has been wonderful since I've started using org. My questions on even the most basic matters have been answered with respect and clarity. Even though I'm a mere user of org, I've never hesitated to participate in a discussion on the mailing list.

However, I am concerned about the future of org. There is one individual who is poisoning the atmosphere by engaging in unfair and unfounded name calling that simply should not be included in messages to this list. Now this person wants to take some of their contributions out of org. The developer of the talk I attended called this tactic "hostage taking" and said that it is better for the community to let hostage takers go their own way. The project and community are more important than the code. The code can be written by others, or the community can decide to go in a different direction. Giving in to hostage takers leads to more hostage taking and the decline of the project.

Many of the users of org find it to be irreplaceable. We don't want to see org fall apart because of dissension in the community. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have dissent and disagreement. No, those are essential for a vigorous and healthy project. It is hateful and untruthful personal attacks that we should not accept no matter how significant the code contributions of those making the attacks.

Scott Randby