[Cumbria] comments

[Chris Plant]

Before, I start to reply to this mail, I must first warn you that I have
no intention of trying to thinly veil my insults.  I have every
intention to speak my mind.

> 
> I am a Linux novice but started messing with an XT when I started an OU
> degree 13 years ago and am experienced at DOS and all the varieties of
> Windows.  There are five computers here ranging from a P133 server that
> someone was giving away to this XP1700 machine and I am not about to
> switch away to machines other than PCs.  For five years I have ran an
> amateur radio packet BBS on two computers controlling four radios and
> with wholly RF links.  Seeing other sysops elsewhere in the country do
> more under Linux than I was doing in DOS was what brought me first to
> Linux.  I have also been a Usenet group user for several years after
> being a CIX user before.  Some groups have been good but others are full
> of opinion and prejudice paraded as facts.  Is that familiar?

Everyone has the right to voice their opinion and their thoughts about
anything they want.  Anyone who doesn't want to hear those thoughts and
opinion has the right to pay no attention to them. Sound Familar?

> 
> I didn't suggest that discussions about distros were not useful just
> that they be done using temperate language. 

I feel that the discussion about suse and redhat was done politely and
with perfectly acceptable language.  The LUG is intended as a method of
trading knowledge and experience between people, and also as a
semi-social group of people with similar interests.

> I am not new to this group having been at the first meeting and at every
> one since except one.  We had a number of people attend in the beginning
> who stopped attending.  These were all from the Barrow & Furness area.
> At least two told me that they found the Jamie & Chris activity at the
> meetings to be far from encouraging and sufficient deterrent to cease coming.  
> They were of similar experience to myself ie novices who might have gone 
> on to embrace Linux as desktop users.
I don't know which "Jamie & Chris activity" you are refering to, but I
stopped going to the LUG when Jamie left to go to University because you
HAM radio friends have nothing to say that interests me.  I feel I was
very accomodating to the needs of the rest of the group, and the only
"activity" I can recall was a brief introduction to IRC, and a few
in-depth discussions about programming and secure chat networks.  I feel
that I never acted in any manner which may have been off-putting to new
members of the group.
> 
> There is a lot more I could say but things would become more poisonous. 
> I have tried to support Mike B and Dave Y as friends of mine as well as
> pick up something as I go along and I thought the LUG would be an
> inclusive rather than an exclusive group but this doesn't seem the view
> amongst all.  Dave Murphy and Ken Hough in particular have been
> encouraging however.  That said, I have felt out of place here in this
> group recently and further acrimony will only develop because I am
> willing and articulate enough to speak my mind.  I will leave you lads
> to it and continue my Linux experience with friends.
I think you should stop sulking and start making some new friends.
> 
> Dave M...please remove me from the mailing list and from any listings as
> a LUG member.
Well, if I was being polite here, I'd say cheerio, but I have no
intention of doing that.  I began to get this vibe at the meeting on
thursday.  The LUG was dying and failing to accomodate everyone's needs
in its previous incarnation, as far as I am aware, it was dying a death
without Jamie's efforts, and was already seen by many as an extension to
your silly HAM Radio groups.  I am glad that the LUG has finally been
revived and new life and viewpoints have been injected by the people
from Kendal and the other parts of the county.
The effort put in by these people, to grab the mailing list and website
from Mike's control, under which it was quite clearly dying, and then to
make the concession of carrying on the meetings at the watermill, is
pretty damn decent.

What do you HAM Radioer's want, the people with more experience to sit
down, shut up, put the work in, and then listen to your bloody
presentations about how easy it is to configure samba?  I feel we are
perfectly entitled to talk to each other about areas of common interest,
and already, I'm caught between Dave York, helpfully reminding me that
telling people what we run at dowdales damages the reputation of the
school, and you HAM Radio fiends, telling us we shouldn't talk about
anything more advanced that which buttons we like best on the KDE
Kicker?

I feel that I must warn the people who believe that the LUG can continue
without the input of the people from outside furness, that they are
sadly mistaken, and that their interests would be better served with an
extension to their HAM Radio groups.

Feel free to flame me, I have no problem with telling people what I
think, and I have a greater respect for people who speak their mind than
those who hide behind other people and generalisations.


Chris "I won't talk anymore at your LUG, Mike" Plant