[mythtv-users] Mailing list and a Wiki... and a dessert topping

[Bruce Markey]

J. Donavan Stanley wrote:
> John Sturgeon wrote:
...
>> Good question.  Why don't you log in and fix it?
>>
> 
> I'm *really* sick of this topic but I just had to point out the 
> hypocrisy of your answers to Michael here.   Here you are telling him to 
> fix the wiki when the wiki folks refuse to fix the existing docs and 
> instead run off to do their own thing (and get it wrong).

Ditto. There is no reason useful info can't be included in the
open source documentation. That is the best way to get information
into the hands of the people that an author supposedly wants to
inform. However, this simple logic will never phase these people.

I've seen this game played over and over. Not just this thread,
not just this project, not just this month, year, decade or even
millennium.

No one wants to to admit to the underlying motivation but the
reason people refuse to contribute but put up information in
their own form is because they want to be perceived as being an
expert and receive praise from the people they attract. To these
authors, there are two obvious drawbacks to contributing. First,
their work would have be correct and subject to review. Any
mis-information may be corrected or amended and thus would no
longer be completely their work. Most importantly, however, their
work would become anonymous. Remember, this is not to help other
people or even to be part of a team creating the best possible
result. The motivation is simply to draw attention to themselves.

Once you know the game, all the responses are predictable and
tired. The first thing that needs to happen is that the possibility
of contributing to the thing, in this case open source documentation,
has to be dismissed ASAP. The topic must be buried swiftly so that
the assumption that there must be another location for information
is imperative. Usually the author/wannabe comes up with what they
think is a creative defense one time then never addresses the
possibility of contributing again. This one was fun though. The
guy simply said "I don't want to" with the word "don't" highlighted
for emphasis =).

So, while contributing information into the distribution that
will be seen by every future user is clearly the right thing to
do, there is no way to phrase it that won't draw a counter-
argument simply because contributing would not meet the true
objectives.

--  bjm