[wellylug] off-topic whining

[Mark Foster]

On Mon, 14 Sep 2009, Jethro Carr wrote:

> On Mon, 2009-09-14 at 13:03 +1200, John Barstow wrote:
>> Thanks, I just convinced my wife (who has been using Linux for over
>> three years) to come to the next meeting, it wouldn't matter if she
>> was the only woman there.
>>
>> Now she feels really unwelcome. I'm not even sure she's going to come
>> to SFD thanks to the hostility. She's not offended by the "guys",
>> she's offended by the hostility evident in the replies to Daniel. As
>> am I, I'm unsubscribing now.
>
> hi John,
>
> Well, that's a shame, but your loss.
>
>
> Most people at Wellylug (and SFD which is a large event that Wellylug is
> only a small part of) are pretty decent people.
>
> However, when people on mailing lists start accusing guys who are
> respectful of women of using sexist language it tends to get people
> pretty angry.

I need to support Jethro here; the online world is full of all types of 
people, some are obviously more polite than others; some are more PC. 
Judging an entire community by the contributions of a few is a bit like 
judging a book by its cover, isn't it?

I remain grateful to the various LUG's for their help and have developed 
many friendships (I should add, of the IRL type) as a byproduct of my 
participation in them.  Those who're excessively rude or OTT tend to get 
dealt with one way or the other - often off-list, in private, between the 
list moderators and the offenders themselves (and thus invisibly to the 
rest of us).

I too hope you'll join us at SFD and hope you'll remain involved in 
WellyLUG, whatever that involvement may be.

I have found that above all else, a thick skin is often a necessity for 
participating in online fora. :-) Nevermind playing the role of moderator.

Mark.