Hello Mr. Maddox, thanks for your good opinion about ReactOS project!
Unfortunately I am not able to persist in IRC 24h a day, and I am not able to read up the logs, and even more I would spend my time on judging who is right in some irc-discussion.
This is IRC. It's an informal way of communication. People have personalities there, and everyone has different personality. This night (day for you probably) you learned the Alex's personality. Nothing really bad happened, I'm sure.
However, when using mailing lists, and making this kind of statements:
I ask that the decision to give this person power of the level of communication about the project in the channel be reviewed as quickly as possible in light of these or other past events.
is a little bit not very smart. I will outline the reasons for you: 1. I don't alter mailing list postings. So if someone said "Wine devs should go .... themselves", it's really bad, and the one who said it already understood that saying so in mailing lists is not an option. 2. I don't alter or control IRC. People say what they think there - it is The Freedom (and it's called Freenode too). People can say "Fireball sux" there, and I won't be offended, because it's either a joke or a sign that someone wished I do something differently. 3. Furthermore, I will hardly limit Alex's or any other developer's power level due to this incident, and you know this. No offence, but I trust my whole team more, and thus I'm subjective here.
And finally, isn't coming back to irc under different nickname, trying to make others believe that you are a different user, etc - isn't it a childish behaviour too? :-)
So, Steven, please get used to IRC - it's the most free way to express yourself, but be aware that everyone else is free to express himself too. And don't take everything so close to your heart.
With the best regards, Aleksey Bragin. ReactOS Project Coordinator.
On Jul 11, 2006, at 8:48 AM, Steven Maddox (Cyorxamp) wrote:
Dear ReactOS Developers,
I apologize for taking these extra ordinary steps in this matter but I could not locate another way of bringing this issue to attention on your site.
I was in the IRC channel on the 11th July '06 from about 3am to 5am GMT... I was posing some very interesting and fundamental questions about how the project began, it's direction. I was pleased that after a few minutes most of the users had agreed that ReactOS is intending to be much more than just NT compatible but in a sense 'Windows + Better'.
After this there was many hours of discussion of how to make it more than just a windows clone, many of such involving the idea of ReactOS being similar to Linux in some senses and how to get a Linux feel while maintaining windows compatibility.
Near the end of the log (I hope these are saved, I have no copies myself) an 'Alex_Ionescu' joined in on the conversation. He had many interesting views that greatly heightened the debate to whether ReactOS should intend to be more than windows now, or at a later date. I was for the view that in order to gain a user base quicker that it must at least intent to be more than a clone and was trying to illustrate why. I first tried to illustrate this and got shot down due to my poor phrasing of what I meant.
I tried to rephrase my point, and I began with a sentence talking about firefox as a metaphor of another great piece of floss software. I was interrupted by Alex_Ionescu (whom is an op in that channel) who told me i 'must' state my reason using a single statement only and began quoting regulations of the English language and structuring a proper argument... so many regulations in fact i feel even if I did comply it would be difficult to fit it in one statement.
I decided to wait until Alex_Ionescu had given up on such a silly and clear attempt at limiting my free speech in this matter. However he persisted to want to know what my point was on this matter, when trying again... he shut me down. Eventually he set the entire channel to moderated status only so only those he selected could discuss the matter. Apparently this was until I could phrase my argument using just one statement.
I waited until this was lifted and it was not, eventually I came back... spoke Spanish and under another nick! Granted this was to yet again give my point across... instead of this they knew who I was and quickly identified me. A silly tactic I know, but having done this I was quickly misquoted in the channel from my conversation with Alex_Ionescu about things I was trying to explain to him as well as very childish remarks as tho I had said "I love cock". I have high hopes for this project and wish it every success, I had a very enlightened experience up until meeting this person with the arguments put and listened and responded to them well. Alex_Ionescu on the other hand obviously has no understanding of what it means to express oneself freely, and it would seem has a childish nature too.
I ask that the decision to give this person power of the level of communication about the project in the channel be reviewed as quickly as possible in light of these or other past events.
Thank you,
-- Steven Maddox (Cyorxamp)