Re: Demystifying the Politburo (was: Re: Arabic encoding model (alas, static!))

From: Gregg Reynolds (unicode@arabink.com)
Date: Fri Jul 08 2005 - 15:13:26 CDT

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    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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