The Judgment Game
Sometimes, when there are what one might term “charged discussions”, I like to play a little game. I sample a few of the people who are shooting their mouths off and check to see how they're contributing to a certain project about which I might have some opinions. In some cases, I find that they are not worthless blowhards as one might conclude from the inanity of their speech and actions, but actual contributors who just happen to be terribly, terribly incorrect. In other cases, I discover that they have shown a grave lack of judgment in prioritization. Let's stereotype some of the charming winners.
The worthless blowhard: This person has a contribution-to-noise ratio that is infinitesimal small. Perhaps he believes that by expressing himself, he is making the world a better place. Perhaps he thinks that his opinions matter. He is mistaken.
The arrogant egoist: This person also does very little. She believes herself to be supremely qualified to dictate the way in which others make their contributions, or at least moreso than the people who are actually doing the work. She is quite often mistaken, and should be ashamed of being such a control freak.
The catamite trainer: This is a version of the arrogant egoist who betters the world by taking on an apprentice. The Master supervises the Apprentice's contributions, and continues to dictate how things should be done despite being unwilling to actually contribute himself. One notable difference between this and a respectable mentorship relationship is that the Apprentice is aware that he is more qualified to make these decisions than the Master, but feels that it would be socially inappropriate to shake off the yoke of oppression. He is mistaken.
The possessive stoner: This is someone who is lax in her responsibilities but means to correct these deficiencies as soon as humanly possible. If anyone offers to help her, she says, “No! I'll do it myself this weekend.” Then she does something else. The offer is repeated a month later, and she replies, “No! This weekend for sure, Rocky!” Two years later, people are still fuming that the work hasn't been done. She is a flake.
On a completely different subject, let's talk about Debian. I recommend the expulsion of anyone who posts more than 5 mailing-list emails or newsgroup articles in a 24-hour period. I recommend the expulsion of anyone who finds out about Debian votes by reading Slashdot. I recommend the expulsion of anyone who reads Slashdot. I recommend the expulsion of anyone with subpar personal hygiene. I recommend the expulsion of anyone in Project Scud. I recommend the expulsion of anyone who employs statistics in a dishonest manner. I recommend the expulsion of anyone who tries to impose the values of a particular subculture that is not Debian on an international project. I recommend the expulsion of anyone who uses cdbs. I recommend the expulsion of anyone who likes tarball-in-tarball. I recommend the expulsion of anyone who makes lists. I recommend the expulsion of anyone who contributes more to Gentoo, Mandriva, Red Hat, SuSE, Ubuntu, or Xandros than to Debian. I recommend the expulsion of anyone who ever wrote an autobiography. I recommend the expulsion of Mos Def and Talib Kweli: best expulsion in hip-hop. Y-O.