This is just a funny bit, nothing serious.
So, Miguel de Icaza posts that the Ubuntu StackOverflow should really be a Linux StackOverflow and watch Team Apologista rally!
A funny (and quickly downvoted comment):
This looks like a useful idea. But why is Miguel so interested in it? What does it have to do with Microsoft?
Heh.
Ancient Mysteries Revealed
Allow me to peel back the tin foil and explain:
If there is an Ubuntu-only Stack Exchange then Team Apologista’s inevitable infiltration and subsequent constant promotion of Mono, Moonlight and Microsoft will only look like more in the way of Ubuntu making a questionable decision.
BUT, if the StackExchange is Linux-generic, Team Apologista can both interact with a wider base of users, and pretend that Mono, Moonlight, and Microsoft are Linux-friendly-in-general! Thrice the spin with the same amount of effort!
Devious!
#1 by Crowley on August 6, 2010 - 5:01 pm
Don’t be such a crazy conspiracy theorist. Surely the real reason for Miguel’s involvement is because the site runs on .NET.
#2 by saulgoode on August 7, 2010 - 12:51 am
“Tribalism makes you stupid.”
This is wrong. Stupidity makes you stupid. And attributing one’s stupidity to tribalism is stupid.
“Tribalism” as defined by Mr Shuttleworth — when one group of people start to think people from another group are “wrong by default” — is how all but the most naive and callow of human beings apply reason and skepticism to an opinion or belief. Whether or not a belief is “wrong” has nothing to do with the nature of the persons believing it, nor is there anything wrong with a person or group thinking that other beliefs are wrong (imagine the paradox presented should you think this wrong).
The very reason that people form together into “tribes” is precisely because they share common beliefs and opinions; and, failing evidence or logic to the contrary (i.e., “by default”), believe that opposing beliefs are “wrong”. This is as it should be.
#3 by Jason on August 9, 2010 - 1:12 pm
Saul,
You raise a good point.
I sort of see things like this: if we were to simplify the scale and put “Different opinions are stupid” on one end and “Every opinion is equally valid” on the other, then either extreme is a silly position to hold.
It seems to me there is a lot of push for the “every opinion is equally valid” from certain quarters, especially when under criticism for behaving in a way outside of group norms.
Similarly (and often paradoxically) I see a lot of trying to portray others as thinking “different opinions are stupid” so they can be dismissed.
Often it’s the same actor doing both!
#4 by Jeremy on August 10, 2010 - 11:03 pm
Apparently Mark Shuttleworth is also part of Team Apologista since he supported Miguel’s StackExchange push?
http://area51.stackexchange.com/users/14586/mark-shuttleworth
#5 by Jason on August 11, 2010 - 6:37 am
Please let me know which of the words in this, the opening sentence of the post, you do not understand:
“This is just a funny bit, nothing serious.”