From owner-freebsd-current Wed Apr 26 3:38:33 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from trinity.skynet.be (trinity.skynet.be [195.238.2.38]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C83F137BB8B for ; Wed, 26 Apr 2000 03:38:24 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from blk@skynet.be) Received: from [195.238.1.121] (brad.techos.skynet.be [195.238.1.121]) by trinity.skynet.be (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7C1B9180D5; Wed, 26 Apr 2000 12:38:19 +0200 (MET DST) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: blk@pop.skynet.be Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <200004252022.OAA13776@nomad.yogotech.com> References: <20000424185151.A36672@hub.freebsd.org> <00042422091401.16303@nomad.dataplex.net> <200004251609.KAA12689@nomad.yogotech.com> <00042511570801.32593@nomad.dataplex.net> <200004252022.OAA13776@nomad.yogotech.com> Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 12:22:13 +0200 To: nate@yogotech.com (Nate Williams), Richard Wackerbarth From: Brad Knowles Subject: Re: Archive pruning Cc: Nate Williams , current@FreeBSD.ORG Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG At 2:22 PM -0600 2000/4/25, Nate Williams wrote: > I consider you a very small minority. A user who is not a developer, > but who could be a developer. The amount of work it would take to > support your needs is way too much work, and it would only benefit < > 1-2% of the user base. Does this mean we don't care about all our > users? Of course not, but when the same amount of time/effort can > positively effect > 50% of the user base, then it makes more sense to > spend the time more wisely. Not that I really want to be seen as being on the same side of the argument as Richard, but there is an issue I think you've ignored -- current versus potential future customers. When you look at current customers (at least, the ones that are vocal enough to express an opinion), you get the sorts of numbers you have expressed. However, when you compare this against potential future customers, I think you could very quickly find that the people who currently appear to be the vocal majority instead find themselves to be a vocal minority. I see this as being the same sort of problem that is faced by the "Moral Majority" crowd. IMO, they are neither moral nor a majority, but they are exceptionally vocal, and quite good at shouting down people who oppose them, and making sure that most of the real majority never even thinks of stepping into the debate simply because they don't want to have to deal with these bozos. Not that I want to equate the people who have taken the opposite view as being a "Moral Majority" or anything, just that there is a similar problem that I think has to be recognized, and we have to try to find some way to address it. -- These are my opinions -- not to be taken as official Skynet policy ====================================================================== Brad Knowles, || Belgacom Skynet SA/NV Systems Architect, Mail/News/FTP/Proxy Admin || Rue Colonel Bourg, 124 Phone/Fax: +32-2-706.13.11/12.49 || B-1140 Brussels http://www.skynet.be || Belgium To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message