[svlug] What went wrong? was: Re: Installfest?

[Chris Miller]

On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 9:37 AM, Karen Shaeffer <shaeffer at neuralscape.com> wrote:
> Not that I am getting sucked into a brain dead flame war,

When I put it on my "Veil of Silence" filter means it's a flame war.
It's not there yet, so therefore it's not.  It is as simple as that.

> but Rick's comments were measured and accurate. John and
> Chris Miller appear to be avoiding one really important
> point: The event was advertized as an installfest. And
> sitting around in a cafe chatting isn't an installfest.
> I may not have all the facts, but it appears the event
> was a total failure, where folks couldn't keep their
> focus, so they sat around a chatted. Not a problem
> in general, but when you advertize on a list like svlug,
> it seems reasonable to expect the folks to deliver.

I'm not going to lie - Rick is, as very usual, right.  He's correct
about a need for greater planning and more accurate announcement
information.  However, I also think that we all make mistakes and that
Rick could be a little less vindictive in his chastisement.

However, to be technical, when only 11 people showed up late we did
hold a vote and decided that there were not enough newbies in need of
help with an installation to call it a proper installfest.  There were
two people with machines in need of Linux, and we did help them, but
the turnout wasn't that large.  So while some people helped install
Linux, others just chatted around.  I'm not exactly certain there was
much of anything else we could have done.

> Tony ought to be upset. John and Chris appear to be
> dead wrong here. And instead of a rebuttal, we need
> an apology and a commitment to not abuse the trust
> of the members of this list in the future.

I'd be interested to know how Tony got there on time.  There was some
massive traffic on the freeway which delayed me about half an hour.  I
had to take surface streets through Montclair district, and then got
rather turned around for about fifteen minutes as my Dad tried to
remember how exactly it was he used to get to school when he was
attending UC Berkeley.

The layout of the Evans building is confusing as well.  There is are
two levels on which you can enter.  The upper level (and the most
accessible for those coming from any direction except for due west)
was locked and dead as a doorknob in terms of activity.  On the lower
level there was some kind of Statistics final taking place.  I believe
that is where John posted his sign.  From the upper level it is not
immediately apparent that there is any kind of lower level.  The only
reason my dad found it is because he took Statistics in the Evans
building almost 25 years ago, and he happened to remember the
admittedly odd layout of the building.

As for list appropriateness, I think John has some different beliefs
about the "sanctity" of how topic-specific a mailing list needs to be.
 In discussion with him he said that the concept of creating a Python
script to register for 200+ Linux Users Groups mailing lists and
posting a single announcement email to it, and then unregistering from
all those lists was not specifically unethical.  Others in the group
(the fellow from Sacramento and myself, specifically) disagreed.  John
seemed surprised at this difference of opinion, and so I find it
understandable that he didn't think it the least bit wrong to do
something like this.  I would wager that he now has seen that others
don't share his lenient view, and I would also wager that he'll be
more observant of other people's protocols in the future.

> I'm busy and won't be commenting further. Just my view.

Aside from a few misgivings I think that you are entirely correct in
your assessment.

-- 
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