athloi's Journal: Sticks and stones

Is it just me, or is there a rise in labeling stuff that offends community pretense as "FUD" or "Troll" or "Flamebait"?

It reminds me of little kids bullying on the one guy whose mom got him a pink lunchbox. It's OK to call him any bad name, but if you say he might have a point, you have joined him in the circle of those who are bad.

If you're serious about open source, or even just about using computers, you get agnostic on this kind of religion. Firefox sucks. IE does as well, but Opera doesn't. Start thinking instead of bleating.

If anything, you empower those who are creating real FUD because they can post a comment "IE does OK with tables" and watch it get modded down, called flamebait or FUD, and followed by angry misspelled messages, and then they can turn to other people and say, "See? I told you these F/OSS people were angry basement dwelling losers who can't tell the difference between a good app and a crap one."

Maybe they're right. I still stick by my lack of religion. If a product is good, I'm going to use it and because I believe in good tools, I won't shut up about it even if you mod me -5, FUD Flametroll.

Not a unique problem

[Billosaur]

In any large group, there is fractioning, based on similarity of thought. People enter camps with their like-minded brethren, pitch their tents, light their fires, and set the watch, then swarm out to attack when their enemy is sighted. Then they retreat to their tents and thump their chests and claim a victory for the cause. Apple is better than Microsoft. Google is better than Apple. Firefox is better than IE. Opera is better than Firefox. Linux is best, Windows sucks.

What gets lost in this mêl

Wise observations

[athloi]

Especially about the cell phone. I have one, I carry it with me, and I'm grateful for its convenience but the rest of the time I'm mad at it for being awkward and often not working. I long for the old fashioned bell phones... if only they were portable.

I think you're right about the nature of communities. They fragment for purposes of identity and safety. It's very simian. Still I wish it were otherwise, because there is so much potential here.