[consulting] Suggestion for Dries and Moderators: New Politics List

[Adam Mordecai]

While the back and forth on wether or not Socialism or Communism or Capitalism or Pastafarianism is the most evil thing ever is quite engaging, I'd like to remind everyone why this list was created in the first place by Dries:

http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/consulting/2005-December/000000.html

a new mailing list has been created: consulting at drupal.org, a mailing  
list for Drupal consultants, Drupal service providers, Drupal hosting  
providers, etc.  As most of you know, there is large demand for  
Drupal consultants; pretty much every Drupal consultant is maxed  
out.  This list aims to connect Drupal consultants, to share ideas  
and experience amongst Drupal consultants, to obtain feedback from  
Drupal consultants, and hopefully, to grow the number of Drupal  
consultants.  (This is not a support mailing list.  It is a  
"consultant to consultant" mailing list.)

So essentially this is a place to talk shop, refer clients to each other, share sites and discuss best practices, not to debate the nuances of various political philosophies.  Every other week, a few noisy players clog the list with noise, not changing ANYONES minds. Both sides go home with the same view, and the rest of us who are here to talk shop end up getting annoyed and consider more and more leaving the list.  It has no relevance to what this list is supposed to be about and is not appropriate. This is not persecuting free speech, this is called staying on topic.  If you went in the Drupal Dev IRC room and never stopped talking about how awesome the latest Britney Spears album is, chx would kick you out, not because he hates your ideas (though he probably does), but because its not appropriate to talk about Britney's awesome new album there. The appropriate place for that is #drupal-crappypopmusic.

For example, appropriate discussion would be:
Where can I find healthcare as a US freelancer?
Does anyone know a good insurance broker for liability and healthcare?
How would you handle a client who has done A B or C?
What are some best practices for how to decide my rates?
Which countries would be best for a consultant to move to to gain the most benefits while at the same time be able to make the most money?

For example, inappropriate discussion would be:
Everything that has been ranted about over and over for the last 3 months about socialism vs capitalism. We get it. You know the true way. Yay you.

I would like to ask Dries to appoint some moderators, and also perhaps create a second list, the list could be called Drupal Politics. On that list, you could talk about how Capitalism is evil, how socialism kills babies, or anything else regarding social policy that has no immediate effect on individual consultants tangible takeaways. (Yes the policies of various countries do have an effect on all of us, but this is not the list to organize around legislative policies.) We are here to learn from each other about how to improve our business practices and improve Drupal, not organize a revolution and topple regimes.

I will gladly volunteer to moderate this list and move all political discussions to the politics list.

In the first thread, I will talk about how capitalism is awesome, but sucks without unions. And how I want universal healthcare.

And then we can start making this list grow again, with actual intelligent discussion about how to make our businesses and Drupal better.

Thanks,

Adam Mordecai, Partner
Advomatic, LLC
http://advomatic.com
Drupal Development, Managed Hosting & Maintenance
Watch my presentation: PUT THE RFP DOWN:  Why RFPs are bad for Drupal shops and how to fix them. http://www.slideshare.net/Advomatic/put-the-rfp-down

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