[O] Org Community

[Scott Randby]

Last September, I attended a talk given by the lead developers of a
prominent free software project. One of the developers spoke about the
importance of maintaining a friendly community that does not drive
people away. In particular, the developer emphasized that the
community is more important than the code.

The org community has been wonderful since I've started using org. My
questions on even the most basic matters have been answered with
respect and clarity. Even though I'm a mere user of org, I've never
hesitated to participate in a discussion on the mailing list.

However, I am concerned about the future of org. There is one
individual who is poisoning the atmosphere by engaging in unfair and
unfounded name calling that simply should not be included in messages
to this list. Now this person wants to take some of their
contributions out of org. The developer of the talk I attended called
this tactic "hostage taking" and said that it is better for the
community to let hostage takers go their own way. The project and
community are more important than the code. The code can be written by
others, or the community can decide to go in a different
direction. Giving in to hostage takers leads to more hostage taking
and the decline of the project.

Many of the users of org find it to be irreplaceable. We don't want to
see org fall apart because of dissension in the community. I'm not
saying that we shouldn't have dissent and disagreement. No, those are
essential for a vigorous and healthy project. It is hateful and
untruthful personal attacks that we should not accept no matter how
significant the code contributions of those making the attacks.

Scott Randby