All things considered, I genuinely appreciate the thoughful response, please allow me a chance to respond to some of your points to hopefully clarify my position…
Agreed, however I also believe in honesty in difficult conversations, and after years of seeing the same general trend with no real solution, my good faith has honestly been totally exhausted. I would be lying if I said otherwise.
Again agreed, and I really don’t intend to persecute anyone. It’s not my bag, personally. I am and have always been interested in this community for technical reasons, and I find the political aspects draining and unrewarding personally. It isn’t my intention to see anyone banned or punished.
However, from my own point of view, it does seem there are some very real biases that exist that are not being properly addressed and indeed are being systematically dismissed any and every time a member of the community attempts to address them. Further, these issues, at least the ones I have had exposure too, only seem to bias in one direction, which is the root of my concern.
It is my belief that good leaders are rare, and I am more than willing to extend copious amounts of grace to those who attempt to step up. What I am not willing to support, however, is an attitude which boils down to, “I’m right, and if you disagree I will simply ban you.”
In my view, It’s more or less fine to have that attitude as a regular community member; it is your perogative, but for a leadership position I find it inappropriate. Further, I feel it is a mark of bad leadership when someone is unwilling to at least consider their own biases, especially when being critical of others.
Also agree. I would simply say that, from my perspective at least, part of the problem is that I have tried to do just that, and each and every time I’ve been met with a wall of utter resistence that seems unwilling to advance beyond their own narrow worldview. Indeed, the impression I have gotten several times is that any opposition should just be exhausted until they literally just give up.
This may create an illusion of consensus or closure, but in reality it sometimes seems almost intentional. Human beings have limitations, and it is far easier to fluster your opponent into an ineffective angry rant and proceed to character assasinate them than it is to understand them. We’d be lying if we pretend this isn’t a factor.
Unequivocally no. I do not presume to know anything about the intentions of others. All I can speak to are the general trends that I myself, and others have pointed out. I am very interested in alleviating my ignorance, in as far as that is possible, and I make real effort to attempt to understand the viewpoints of others. That said, I do not believe all viewpoints are equal or valid, and part of my issue here is that I simply cannot understand the rationale behind a lot of these decisions, and any time I inquire, it seems the response is more or less, “that’s the way it is, deal with it.” Although never that bluntly, thankfully.
This is a programming community after all, I would presume that we are generally more interested in logically sound ideas than the general public would be. However, I am failing to find a logically consistent thread here at all. Again, as I have said, I am more than willing to extend grace, and I realize that mistakes and oversights are commonplace. I am also freely willing to admit the possibility that it is me who is mistaken. I’m not upset if things don’t go my way, and it really doesn’t bother me personally.
I really feel more compelled to speak on behalf of other members of the community, who I know have hit the same wall I have, and yet seem reluctant to speak up, giving an illusion of consensus where one does not exist. If I can, I’d like to express the shared frustration in a way that is hopefully productive, but also, as I said in the beginning, my patience has been spread fairly thin at this point. And if things continue in this way, the most likely response is that I will simply resign once again.
But this is all meta, it seems we can never really get into the meat of the issue without somebody getting blocked or silenced, which I guess is the best way I can concisely express the issue. I’m more than willing to consider the possibility that perhaps in my current position, I am simply not equiped to express the problem in a productive manner, but for the sake of the community at large and those I feel are not recieving a fair voice, I’ll venture to try.