Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion

10,000 Posts.

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ki:
As I said, it is not my intention to place any blame on you, or single you out. But since the topic was raised, I thought it would be appropriate (and hopefully beneficial) to express my impression of the community from the perspective of a relatively new user. Everyone loses perspective sometimes, and I imagine that that is especially the case when involved heavily in a project and being in charge of administrating discussions on the project. My hope in writing the post was to try to bring a different perspective in relation to maintaining a healthy community.
I linked to a few threads to try backup what I was trying to say, rather than simply expressing abstract statements or opinions.
I don't really want to get into a debate about right and wrong, but I will try to clarify my statements a little.

For the posts in question from the third link;


--- Quote ---If there are already threads on this, why did you start yet another one? In fact, what is the question here?
--- End quote ---

I felt that this response to a user's first post was a little abrasive (even with flat intonation).
I agree that the second response was not, by nature, rude at all. However I also did not feel that anything constructive came out of the dialogue or that any kind of progress was made.

I understand that it must be frustrating when people do not follow rules or guidelines when posting, or do not bother to do more extensive research. But might I suggest that giving some kind of very brief information related to the topic as well as making it clear why a post is inappropriate or misguided would be a more positive way to handle the situation?
Especially for someone who is new and may not yet 'know better'.



As for the first link, I felt that the first half of your response expressing the manpower situation was indeed constructive and appropriate. Unfortunately, the second part seemed to make it personal, even though the person who made the post in question repeatedly stated that he was not complaining and simply expressing a viewpoint.

--- Quote ---And of course people like you never pitch in by starting to learb so you can help next time Instead you just say you can't code, and give your opinion of how we could spend our time better as if we were too stupid to realize that playing music well is the single key function of a DAP.

--- End quote ---


In the second link, I was not referring to your response in that thread at all, but merely observing that when situations like that arise where someone is clearly upset by the way things have been handled, it may reflect a problem in the way a situation is moderated.
I do apologize for not making my point clearer in this part, and I shall try to modify it.

Again, I am not simply trying to point out faults on anyones part. I am just trying to raise an issue which I feel would benefit the general health of the community if it is considered.
It's nothing personal, and my comments apply to everyone equally, but since you are the administrator and this thread seems to be relevant, I thought that this was the appropriate place to raise the issue.

Llorean:
In regards to the first one, as there was no question in the other person's post, should I not have asked what the question was? The other alternative was to say "There is no question here. As per the guidelines, this post is irrelevant" and locked the thread. I instead gave them the benefit of the doubt, and asked for clarification.

As for the issue of guidelines, everyone on this forum has been warned to read the guidelines at least once by the time I get to them. I feel it's somewhat redundant to have to tell them again. The only way they could not "know better" as you put it is if they chose to ignore the warning during registration. Frankly, why should it become my problem that they chose to ignore it?

This is the one thing I haven't understood, from everyone who complains about how we enforce the guidelines here, honestly. Why exactly does the burden of a user's willing ignorance fall on me, rather than on them for choosing to ignore the rules? Why is it my duty to be polite and kind to a person who has, essentially, walked right past the sign that says "Please remove your shoes at the door" and tromped mud over my carpet?

I know it's not a perfect analogy, and I know these forums aren't "mine", but that is essentially the situation. There's a sign outside, and they've chosen to ignore it, and we, as the administrators of this forum, are expected to smile and nod and clean up after them? I know we could be a bit more polite sometimes, but you seem when saying  we should give
--- Quote ---kind of very brief information related to the topic
--- End quote ---
suggest that we should reward them for their behaviour? I don't understand this.

baobab68:

--- Quote from: Llorean on March 02, 2008, 02:36:43 AM ---In all seriousness, are you suggesting we need to contain a link to a dictionary, or rewrite the dictionary definition visibly on the site, for people who don't actually know what donate means?

--- End quote ---

No, just that you try to understand why he might have misunderstood. The way that OP stated the situation, he/she made it sound like there was a real misunderstanding there.

Llorean:
Yes, but what you're not aware of is how the OP greatly misrepresented the situation.

There was no misunderstanding in his original two posts on the topic. He offered to donate money for a post, was told cleanly that it's not how we accept donations, and responded that he merely wished to make that suggestion to clarify how much he valued that port.

All well and good. Except his post was in the "New Ports" section, with guidelines clearly posted that the threads are for technical discussion. A different member of the staff came by and routinely removed the post and responses to keep the area clear. Until this point there had been no harsh words or ill feelings.

Then he chose to explode, not because of the misunderstanding over donations, but rather because his posts were removed, and he felt that it was a "dis" (disrespectful action, for non-English users) that his posts were removed without notice, despite clearly posted guidelines in regard to the purpose of that forum.

ki:

--- Quote ---I really don't understand why a person would expect anything at all in response to a donation. The word was chosen specifically to imply that you're not getting anything back. In all seriousness, are you suggesting we need to contain a link to a dictionary, or rewrite the dictionary definition visibly on the site, for people who don't actually know what donate means?
--- End quote ---

I don't think anyone is suggesting that the person writing that post was justified in expecting a port to be developed in return for their donation. And if you read that original post (as misguided as it was), I think you will find that the person was not upset because of not receiving anything in return for their donation. I think what the person may have been angry about was the response they received to their inquiry and the subsequent deletion of the post.  

For the record, I agree that people have no right to expect to get something in return when giving a donation. But in a community project surely the members of the community deserve to be heard and treated with courtesy. I think that's true regardless of whether donations are given or not.



As baobab68 said, I am definitely not trying to suggest that anything I have said is exclusively about Llorean. I am referring to the community as a whole.
I only wrote in this thread because, well, he asked people to do so. (Thank you for doing so by the way Llorean  ;)
But seriously, I hope no one takes this discussion personally, because it's about all of us in the community, and I hope there can be some positive change as a community that comes out of it.

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