[KLUG Advocacy] Re: Decency Standards for Open Source

[Bruce Smith]

> Please be sure to click the "Dig it " link at digg.com for my article
> so I can get the article promoted to the front page. I think I'll 
> need around 50 or so digs to get it up there.

I registered and "dug it" earlier today.

> Thank you for your feedback and I have to say that in everything you 
> said I agree with you. Yet I am still convinced that in the case of 
> OCAL, at least, an open submission policy would sink the ship.

Sure, there has to be some standards for things like OCAL, otherwise a
minority would post whatever it could to purposely sink the project.
There always seems to be that minority on the Internet who thinks their
sole purpose is to cause as much trouble for as many people as possible.

I have no problems with moral and decency standards, as long as those
standards are governed by the majority.  I take issue with this "please
everyone" attitude where the extreme minority get their way by screaming
some politically correct nonsense.

> It is a difficult question to deal with. In this age of globalization 
> the problem is especially vexing. 

Yes, it's a whole new world out there now that the Internet has brought
everyone closer together.  Now there is a lot more "everyone" to please.

> But as I suggested in the article, 
> there is a way to deal with fanatics, which is to ignore them -- a 
> solution you have (IMO, rightfully) employed with Devil Linux up to now 

Yes, we learned through experience that reasoning with these types
doesn't do any good.

> and which the restaurant likely failed to do by caving into what was 
> probably a very small but vocal minority.

Keep in mind that my take on the reasons the pictures were removed is
purely speculation on my part.  Even if someone just stole the pictures
(highly unlikely since they were really large and screwed to the wall),
this type of thing happens all the time, and I'm sure we could come up
with a lot of similar examples.

> The "blanding" of our culture is a serious problem. It bugs me too, and 

Makes me wonder if we're not heading toward what some of the futuristic
movies represent, with a bunch of people all dressed alike going about
their daily tasks with no expressions on their faces ...

> I have an even better example for you. Schools. Tests and textbooks, 

The little I know about present day school systems, it sounds like it's
changed a lot since I was in school.  But since I have no children, and
I have no present day dealings with present days school, I'll defer
comment on this to others.  (too bad Adam is on vacation :)

> Trying to keep this short(er) so let me just wrap up by saying...
> 
> I hope my article conveyed the idea that what I'm recommending is a 
> Taoist, middle road, approach to dealing with decency. It's okay to 
> offend the fringes, as their needs are still attended to, and the price 
> of their fanaticism is extra work and expense in finding what they need. 
> What I'm aiming at is just to move people towards a consensus that some 
> censorship is necessary and good, and excessive censorship is bad and to 
> be avoided. If we can agree on that, then we've made progress.

I can agree with that!  :-)

 - BS