[OT] Off or On Topic

[Greg Kedrovsky]

Hey, guys. I'm not a current kc resident, but I was (grew up in Belton -
no, not in a trailer). I now live in Central America. I caught the
message today from the fellow who was upset with the current thread on
job hunting in kc. It was interesting that it came in today. On my local
Linux User Group list, someone started a very (!) good thread about the
creation of a subgroup within the LUG, a group for newbies. He laid out
meeting plans, ideas, topics, just a ton of stuff. Lots of people I had
never seen on the list responded and the result was a very
light-hearted, friendly thread that was accomplishing much to create a
new community of newbies. And, since our LUG is dominated by Linux
gurus, the newbies often feel pushed aside and their pleas for help are
usually answered with the standard STFW or RTFM.

Anyway, the listmaster jumped in with his sphyncter all puckered up and
his panties all in a bunch over the "tone" of our thread. He booted us
off the LUG list and told us to go elsewhere with our "idle chit chat."
He sent me a personal message letting me know that humor was not well
received on the list because it was not considered professional or
technical or ... Linux-like (what do I know, I'm one of the dipweed
newbies). 

One thing I appreciate about the kclug list is the freedom to gab and be
normal. Sure, it might get outta hand, but... I dunno. Seems like there
should be a balance in there somewhere. Sure, we all need help on
technical issues, but we also need blather on about OT stuff at times,
too. Seems to me the OT stuff just adds to the "fun" of Linux.

So, if you guys are too far in one direction (and I'm not saying you
are; I'm just echoing what I read in some posts), there are other lists
(like mine) that are way out in the opposite direction: no fun, no
humor, no OT wanted, allowed or permitted.

Just my 2 pennies about OT stuff.

-Greg

-- 
Mutt 1.4i on Red Hat 8.0 Linux
Curridabat, San Jose, Costa Rica
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