[sf-lug] SF-LUG meeting notes for Sunday June 2, 2019

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):

>     Anyone attending the meeting is free to correct my omissions or
> incomprehension of the activities and asked to do so asap so that the
> membership not in attendance will not be mis-informed any longer
> than necessary.

You know, if I had just put a volunteer sysadmin through a lot of work
investigating supposedly 'mail not getting through', and it turned 
out that the sole cause was my repeatedly trying to thoughtlessly send
200kB image files through to all 280 subscribers on a mailing list --
personally I'd have thanked the sysadmin for his time, apologised for
chewing it up merely because I'd attempted something clueless that, if
successful, would have also chewed up 56 MB of file transfers across the
sysadmin's alreeady overstressed residential aDSL line, and said I
certainly wouldn't try that again.  And I would thank him for
thoughtfully recommending Shutterfly for any future such occasions.


I can't help notice that every time there's an SF-LUG screwup that
wastes my time avoidably, nobody says 'Sorry, we won't do that again',
and in fact, upon my taking time out from other priorities to get to the
bottom of it, I get ignored.

When I've asked Jim repeatedly, at intervals over 14 years, how the
original SF-LUG mailing list came to be suddenly destroyed on his
machine, I've gotten ignored.

When I recently told Maestro that, no, Akkana Peck is not 'Mr. Peck' and
that maybe he should be a lot more aware of 51% of the human race, I got
ignored.

When I pleaded with SF-LUG for long years to do real-time backup of this
mailing list's cumulative mbox file and membership roster so under no
circumstances can it simply lose its entire mailing list again, I got
ignored.

When during my server downtime, already having a very bad several
months, Jim rather thoughtlessly said *I* should drive to San Francisco
to hand him the backup he refused to lift a finger to make in real time
for years on end, and counter-suggested that *he* drive to Menlo Park
and make a backup at my convenience rather than his, I got ignored.


The recurring theme in all of this is that, when _you-plural_  want
something, I'm supposed to hop to it, but when *I* want something,
anything at all, I get ignored.  Because, basically, you don't value my
time, or my expertise.

Long experience suggests that some people are just not able to get their
minds around the concept of gift cultures
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy), and mistakenly conclude
that your time and effort must be worthless, if you're giving it away
for free.  (Which is of course the entire basis of user groups.)

Maybe you guys should build another mailing list server, as was supposed
to be your intention back in 2005 when 'I offered to give the mailing
list a temporary home on my Mailman-equipped Linux server, linuxmafia.com'
(http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2005q4/000003.html).  And then,
try not to blow it up, this time.

Because you sure don't act like you appreciate the favour I've been
doing for you guys for 14 years.  You've been acting like I'm your
unpaid butler, and, guys, that got old.