I've had it

[Dustin Decker]

On Sun, 1 Jun 2003, Jason Clinton wrote:

> Brian Kelsay wrote:
> 
> > If you have a
> >suggestion direct it at Hal D and Mike N via the list in a polite manner and
> >possibly we can have a discussion and not a shouting match over what should
> >be done. 
> >
> The suggestions have been made. This discussion has already occured 
> several times both on the list, in the chat room and at the meetings. 
> Hal has stated that he has no contact with Mike anymore and that Mike no 
> longer participates in administration of the list. (Hence the week and a 
> half of down time several weeks ago.)

This is somewhat tragic I guess.  I've never personally met Mike, but have 
had the impression for quite some time that he's actually in Chicago or 
some other place, having started KCLUG and then relocated or some such.
At any rate - it's tragic that the domain wasn't transferred (via vote, 
blessing, proxy or otherwise) to someone _else_ such as Hal who could 
continue to pound the forge.

God knows we all get busy as hell from time to time... and it would 
probably be a back-burner for me if I lived in, oh let's say Denver, and a 
mailing list in Florida for which I was responsible had some issues.  
Yeah, I'd get around to it... but probably not immediately.  I get the 
impression we're feeling some of this here.  With Mike not meeting with us 
in flesh space (and to disclaim, I've only been around a couple times this 
past 12 months myself) it's hard to keep your finger on the pulse.

Most LUGs are somewhat consensus driven while there are certainly those 
which lean more toward anarchy.  Ultimately, anyone can start a list and 
slap up a website.  I don't know if anyone recalls, but I myself brought a 
postnuke powered site on-line last year to support both KULUA and KCLUG.  
It was a massive failure, as nobody seemed all that interested in using 
it.  Most everyone commented that the mailing list and IRC were the meat 
and potatoes for them...  so all of this "We need a new website, a new 
mailing list" stuff comes off a bit stale to me.  (Incidently, I killed 
off the site this past month.)

Could it be we're all just a whole lot more interested in being 
postmaster/webmaster for our own little fiefdoms within KCLUG now?  I 
don't mean to point fingers (unless at myself) and certainly see the 
_need_ for other lists.  ILUG for example, is something I can point to and 
use words like "successful" as a description.  Their purpose - to be a 
linux users resource in the Independence area.  What I've seen proves them 
to be just that.

We in KULUA have witnessed similar waxing and waning of consensus and
desire over the years.  On the one hand, there are folks who would like
structure and some form of discussion and training in presentation format
on a regular basis.  Others, prefer to view everything as a social
construct and then revel in BBQ and booze.  Both camps enjoy a great deal
of success if you ask me...  and it's the beauty of it all that as we deal
in open source code, we do the same with our LUG relationships.  We can
change anything we wish - the only down side being that humans generally
resist change.  Oh well - we're all pretty enlightened folks, so change
won't bother us nearly as much as the rest of the sheep, no?  (And oh
yeah, let's not forget that folks get married, jobs change, kids come
along - and it all has a profound effect if it's happening to the 15% of a
group that tend to be "in charge" for whatever reason.)

Ya know - I'm not even real sure what my original point was meant to be.  
I'm hoping that somewhere in this spewing rant of mine a cognizant thought 
will emerge that is useful to someone other than myself.

Linux as a whole, for me, became an alternative _because_ of social 
interaction with other users.  If KCLUG begins to implode, it will be a 
sad day indeed.  Although I am not very active (in case you don't know, 
I'm a full time employee, full time daddy, full time student, and part 
time asshole) in either KULUA or KCLUG these days, I would be disappointed 
to know that the resources that helped me with Linux in my adoption of 
this OS were no longer available.  I refuse to believe that anything else 
out there is up to the challenge of replacing LUGs...  so I guess the 
entire rant is all about "Hey, can't we all just get along?  What can we 
do to make _most_ of our membership happy?"

Is this an identity crisis?  Do we need a mission statement, or will 
something like that only limit our potential?

Struggling to understand all the problems,
Dustin

-- 
o-----------------------------------o
| Dustin Decker - CNA, MCP          |
| dustin at dustindecker.com       o-----------------------------------------o
| Network Engineer              |  A white mountain, covered in snow      |
| Preferred Physicians Group    |  is beautiful.  When the snow melts     |
o-------------------------------|  away and reveals the green underneath, |
                                |  the mountain is again beautiful.  With |
                                |  every loss comes gain, and with every  |
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