Re: More metaproblem

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2014 06:35:57 -0500
> From: "Eric S. Raymond" <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden, address@hidden, address@hidden,
>       address@hidden
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden>:
> > I challenge you to ask and then post the results here, including
> > similar results for other Free Software projects.
> 
> Wow.  You are truly a *master* of subtle obstructionism. The second
> clause in that sentence was a work of art, leaving you wiggle room to
> disregard any survey numbers I might to bring back on grounds of
> insufficient breadth of sample.

I didn't say anything about the sample size.  Please don't put words
in my mouth, I'm perfectly capable of expressing my intent myself.

All I asked for is to compare whatever level of dissatisfaction you
find on a feed which I never visit to something similar for other
projects.  I've seen enough talkback forums to know that the level of
flames there could be utterly unrelated to reality.

> And camouflaging this maneuver as an appeal to scientific
> objectivity - genius, sheer genius!
> 
> Why, if I were a more naive person, I might have immediately gone
> beavering off to #emacs, collected several hundred expressions of
> frustration, and brought them back here only to have them
> high-handedly dismissed.

What's to prevent me from interpreting this as a camouflaged attempt
to get off your high horse, because you have no real data to back up
your claims?

> That general tactic of "I will disregard you until you put in
> an amount of work I have pre-defined to be effectively impossible",
> yes. An old favorite on this list, a hardy perennial.  Very effective
> for resisting any kind of innovation.

The tactic to invent non-existing intentions to your opponents and
then label those inventions with derogatory labels is also
well-known.  Not very effective here, but known.

> This is how Emacs dies.  Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Emacs doesn't die.  Look at the commit rate, if you really want to do
an objective analysis.  Not many live projects can compare with what
we have.