Is OpenBSD a good anti-tempest OS?

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On Sunday 27 July 2008, Woodchuck wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Jul 2008, Martin Schröder wrote:
> > 2008/7/26 Robert Potts <robert at pottsdata.com>:
> > > Bad response for a newbie list.  Please ignore it. I think this is a

It is definitely one of the liabilities with a more or less anonymous 
environment like the Internet. More people spread poor attitude onto others 
with little or no judgment on their choice of words. This is why I usually 
read my emails over before sending them. I try to read it from the view of 
someone who's never read it before, to see how it sounds like without bias.

In the real world one would quickly end up without real friends. And with real 
friends I mean people who go out of their way to help you. Even put 
themselves at risk to get you out of a jam. Online it's mostly just an email 
address, or maybe a name, with little effective relation to the person behind 
it. Many people don't realize the amount of negative attitude they spread.

Fortunately the misc list is one of the very few places where really crappy 
attitude is encouraged. The justification they use is in effect that OpenBSD 
is only for a certain group of people. Manners be damned! The problem with 
that argument, besides common courtesy, is that if so, they should clearly 
note that on the website. 

Many decades ago I met a class mate in a restaurant where I was serving 
tables. At the time he had hung out with a not so savory group. He sat down 
and when he saw me he said something like "Hello idiot!"

Needless to say his service was on par.

Later, having noticed that everyone around him got food promptly, he asked me 
why he got such lousy service. When I pointed out calling your waiter idiot 
might have something to do with it, he was stunned for a second. Then 
apologized, saying he did not realize how it sounded like. Made me wonder how 
many people say that sort of thing?

I'm very glad to see people speaking up on this, and other lists. It usually 
is left to individuals who save the day by doing something about it.

Steve Szmidt