Agressive FUD by Fedora contributor (was: [Bug 210775])

[Karen Pease]

Oy -- as the person who posted the package whose thread started this whole 
conflict, I apologize for any role I may have had in the process.

Re: Censure: The typical form of censure is a figurative "slap on the wrist," 
with no other penalties than the knowledge that others agree that you've 
stepped out of line.

Re: Appropriate way to express dissatisfaction with a package: Refer a user to 
a thread on the subject that both sides know about.  That way it can't be 
considered a sneak attack on a repo's credibility.

Re: ATrpms reliability: I've used ATrpms for a long time now, and I've never 
had a problem with it.  What Christopher is experiencing is called a 
"reporting bias".  It's a widely known statistical problem.  He only ever 
gets to see those who do have a problem, and thus the scale of the problem 
appears greatly magnified from how severe it is.  When you think of how many 
downloads are made per day, the lack of problem reporters from other repos is 
simply a testament to how thorough this whole system in general is.  It 
simply would suggest, if true, that ATrpms meets a 99.9% quality standard 
while others meet a 99.99% quality standard.

Re: Preservebase: I think this is the perfect solution to Christopher's 
complaint.  People can disable it as needed.  I've often wondered why Yum 
branches so much of its functionality into plugins.  Why aren't downloadonly 
and downgradepackage defaults, for example?  Apt does it.  Seems silly not 
to.

Re: Forked packages: To be honest, I can understand the concept of forked 
packages, esp. back before Fedora made it easier to get changes into packages 
into the RH line.  What immediately comes to mind is build options: to reduce 
dependencies, people tend to configure packages with the minimum number of 
deps to meet their functionality requirements.  If a repo needs more 
functionality that requires additional deps, they either have to get the 
original distro to carry those deps (sometimes a hard sell, or even 
impossible if the licensing doesn't work out), or fork.

Not that forked packages are a good thing.  I think it should be standard 
practice with every forked package to, once a month or so, at least put forth 
a minimal effort to get the issue that caused it to be forked resolved.  If a 
maintainer doesn't do this, then, sure, there is just cause for complaints.  
If they do, then I think they're doing their job.

Re: Language: Please keep this to PMs.  Arguing about linguistics with a 
person who doesn't speak your language natively is just mean.  Yes, a PM can 
help them learn to use it better.  But harping on them in public is unfair.  
I daresay that 90% or more of the native English speakers on this list aren't 
as fluent as Axel in *any* other language.  Learning languages is difficult.

Just my six cents.  ;)  I'll keep quiet from now on.

 - Karen