Cart
|
[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: political blather (WAS Re: Advice: inline node editing, or
 Oh go ahead and respond, Joe. Go offline if it makes you happier. Actually, the thread appeared to have converged and was closing just before the howler arrived (insurance costs vs development costs). Oh well... 1. Anyone with "20 years on the 'net" knows that anti-threads spawn anti-anti threads and so forth. They will quickly create more traffic on an unmoderated list than the original. So one can look askance at indignant diatribes that claim to justify stopping one. Smart monkies know that. Smarter ones know not to call people monkies without smileys. Wise ones don't do it at all. On any given day, we are evolving or devolving. 2. No one is required to answer. In fact, the observably easiest way to get a thread to die is not to respond. Where there are responses, there is interest and interest among even two members is interest. Everyone else deletes or ignores. See item 4. 3. No one is obligated to respond to queries from newcomers. Some do and that is excellent. But there are lots of online resources and Google is the best way to get to these. That doesn't mean people won't or shouldn't answer; just that it isn't required of anyone. I note that those who stick around learn who to ask, how to ask, and what can be better answered faster by Googling. Persistence counts. 4. Because the experienced 'monkies' knew that moderation can become a means to quash dissent, they elected not to have a moderator. Sometimes some wish we had one, and these are different people at different times given different threads. We tolerate and extend courtesy. As a result, this is a remarkably flame free list even if it doesn't always look like that. Comparatively, it is. It isn't that hard to cherry pick topics or even that time consuming. See what Joe says about the philosophical issues of SGML and now XML. It isn't just a 'freakin' technology because it sets as one of its principal requirements, freedom from the lifecycle of the host. That is a political requirement and now a technical necessity. It came of dedication and long cooperative and very argumentative effort. SGML found when it allied itself with the web community, a natural ground in which to proliferate. Many are wiser and some are richer for it. I do admire the pointy-bracket mavens and I've known lots and lots of them. Old-timer or not, I won't trade my 20 years for any other even if it came with three Grammies. The best reward in my life was better than awards; it was observable proof that humans will work together to make a better life for all. The SGMLers and now the XMLers, overall, are exemplary. That doesn't mean they aren't noisy branchmates; it means they are. There are times when I agree with the 'can we just engineer?' sentiment, but the web is a crusader's paradise and that can be spy vs spy, or the effort of a community to fight a real threat to its health. Because one can't always know when the fight breaks out why it broke out, it pays to tolerate the din and when one has determined interests, sometimes to join the fray, or just to let the combatants bash their monkey brains out. Then the savannah is quieter until the elephants wake up and start pushing the hippos away from the water. One more thing: nerves will fracture in the haiku/anti-ku season which starts next month. Get your syllable counters ready! len From: Joe English [mailto:jenglish@f...] Jay Vaughan wrote: > What is it about XML people and their attitudes, anyway ... its just > a freakin' technology, people, not a doctrine. I agree with the overall sentiment, but here you are quite mistaken. Remember: XML began life as "SGML for the Web", and SGML is as much a philosophy as it is a technology [*]. Ride it out; this thread will die down in a week or so. --jenglish@f... (desperately resisting the urge to respond to Len's last article) [*] If you're curious about the philosophy of SGML, just ask any old-time SGMLer [**]. There are still a dozen or so of us left on this list, so you should get at least two dozen answers. [**] ... or a new-time SGMLer [***] [***] e.g., Simon St. Laurent 
|
PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced! 
Download The World's Best XML IDE!Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today! Subscribe in XML format
|
|||||||||
