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Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 16:58:41 -0500 (CDT)
From: Tony Kimball <alk@think.com>
Message-Id: <199608232158.QAA05012@compound.Think.COM>
To: phk@critter.tfs.com
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Am I wrong or is this just stupid?r 
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Quoth Poul-Henning Kamp on Fri, 23 August:
: Pointing a finger at something and saying:  "This is wrong" has 
: historically not been a method for encouraging progress.

It's a good way to find out whether or not you are right about 
it, though.  Accomplishing a fixed goal is relatively simple,
in comparison to the difficulty of determine what is a valid
goal.  That's why I ignore certain folks when they gripe about people
complaining rather than contributing.  Much of the time they
are not complaining.  They are attempting to learn the true
situation, to validate their ideas -- often in order that 
appropriate goals may be formulated.  A little help over this hump
may be necessary in order to obtain the contribution of
productive effort.  There is a certain chilling effect
resulting from the known condition that patches submitted
sometimes languish, for example.  By determining whether a patch
would be well recieved, one can better estimate the desirability of
generating the patch.