From: Gregg Reynolds (unicode@arabink.com)
Date: Fri Jul 08 2005 - 15:13:26 CDT
Kenneth Whistler wrote:
> Gregg Reynolds continued:
>
> And that's why I have been responding to your questions, attempting
> to provide some information about how the Unibeast gets to be
> the way it is.
And wonderful responses they are indeed. You know, there's a good
O'Reilly book in there about standards bodies and processes if you're
not doing anything for the next few months.
>
> You can end up with a pattern of defensive herd behavior by
> the in crowd, who "own" the forum, and identification and
> rejection of "interlopers". If that behavior gets played out
> in public, it results in the "this list isn't friendly"
> appearance for newcomers.
Nicely characterized. Alas. I guess you can't force people to be
considerate. All you can really do is...attack preemptively and
relentlessly! Ha ha, a little joke.
...
>
> Generally -- not invariably, of course -- such statements are
> delivered in contexts that make it clear that the person making
> them doesnt' understand much about the Unicode Standard, its
> implementation, or the standardization process.
Which is where your O'Reilly book comes in. ;)
>
> Such suggestions have been made (and tried) before. It is unlikely
> that they would work now, any more than before. The problem with
> attempting this in an email distribution list (as opposed to
> a bulletin board forum format), is that people end up crossposting
> anyway or moving whatever their topic is into whatever is the
> highest traffic list, regardless of whether it is appropriate.
>
Hmmm. <idle speculation> The general/dev division generally works on
software projects; I wonder why they don't have the same problem. I
guess maybe the lines are easier to discern.</>
>
> By the way, you may not realize it, but a good proportion of
> that kind of first-timer inquiry is handled not on *this*
> list, but via the web form for questions and reports:
>
> http://www.unicode.org/reporting.html
>
Didn't realize that. It would be interesting to see a statistical
breakdown of where questions come from (country and language or the like).
>
>>Which is where separate lists might be useful. Maybe whine@unicode.org?
>
>
> Well, sure, but who is going to post to whine@unicode.org, when
> that identifies them as a whiner? ;-)
Of course. What was I thinking? Marketing 101. Let's call it
lamentations@unicode.org instead. Much more dignified.
Thanks,
gregg
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