[mythtv-users] "get the sources and fix it yourself"

Jay R. Ashworth jra at baylink.com
Fri Sep 28 19:12:34 UTC 2007


On Fri, Sep 28, 2007 at 11:03:39AM -0600, Bearcat M. Sandor wrote:
> >You didn't read the part where they were careful to make clear that
> >hackers are a different cultuer from civilians, and like all
> >intercultural interactions -- say, a Texan and a New Yorker? -- people
> >are likely to misinterpret as hostile behaviours which are not intended
> >that way... did you?
> 
> I did read it. It seemed like a really lame excuse on a first pass.   
> In a way, it still does. I agree with what people are saying here and 
> i agree with the content of the document. I don't like the tone. I    
> still don't feel that being part of hacker culture is an excuse.      

So, if you meet someone from New York, and they're short and brusque
with you and you feel offended because you're from California, then
it's all right for you to assume they're an asshole, when all they're
doing is being themselves?

> If someone came to me and says "I'm lost" and i said "your being lost 
> concerns me how?" They would rightly be offended.                     

Sure.  But that's a lousy analogy and you know it.  Giving directions
is a low impact situation.

What if they came up to you and said "it's time for my car's oil to be
changed", with the clear implication that they intended for you to
assume some responsibility for *that* somehow?

> What about it being a computer related question and the fact that i
> have been using linux for 10 years makes that OK to do in a chatroom?
> Why is "Where do you want to go, how do you want to get there?" such
> a big hassle to ask? So i had to ask what distro they were using and
> what the error message was. My fingers are strong and i can type that
> much. It's great to encourage people to give that info up-front, but
> if they don't it's not a big deal is it?

Nope.  Unless you do it 50 times an hour.

> If someone follow me around and asks me for directions while i am
> busy or just looks at me impatiently and says "I'm lost, help help"
> and they have the same map i do in their hands that's different. Even
> then, i might seek to find out why they were lost. Perhaps they just
> had trouble reading it.

Yup.  And that map is free.

> I donno, maybe it's just me. I tend towards compassion where most
> people wouldn't. I recognize that the person in the chat room who says
> "help! help" probably isn't a jerk. They're just paniced, unprepared
> It doesn't take me any more effort to help them calm down then it does
> to be snide, short and antagonize them, and it does me more harm to do
> so.

And more power to you.  No one's saying that's a bad viewpoint to have,
by any means, and it's wonderful that lots of people have it.

I have it.

But I don't get hammered like the people do who inspired the writing of
that document.

Do you notice that Isaac isn't on this list much?

> I'm willing to spend the few moments it takes being kind to someone
> even if they don't know how to help themselves, before i start getting
> in to the one-on-one assistance.

Certainly.  And no one said you -- or anyone else -- shouldn't.

The paper merely observes that *not everyone will*, and the more likely
someone is to be able to answer your questions, the less tolerant
they're likely to be of your asking them poorly.

I can never understand why esr and rm get shit about that paper, when
all it's doing is describing (and explaining) an objective reality.

It's not *their* fault hackers are too busy hacking to do tech support.

Maybe it's cognitive dissonance:

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/09/on-the-other-ha.html

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates     http://baylink.pitas.com                     '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA      http://photo.imageinc.us             +1 727 647 1274


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list