[development] Op-ed: Posting FUD/flame bait to the front page is unproductive, disrespectful, an abuse

[Michelle Cox]

On 12/29/2007 10:58:29 PM, Caleb Gilbert (caleb.gilbert at gmail.com) wrote:
> ...and is not an appropriate thing to do for people with Drupal.org
> frontpage rights.

I agree completely. Which is why I demoted it to begin with. For the record, 
I have always maintained (despite the lies he posts on the thread) that he 
was in his rights to post the discussion. If he has concerns, he should ask. 
I don't want anyone to ever be afraid to speak their mind. The _only_ thing 
I have ever objected to was the promotion to the front page. I see the front 
page as a "brochure" where you post positive things about Drupal for the 
benefit of new people. It is _not_ the place for controversial posts that 
will have new people wondering just what sort of community they are getting 
into.

I was asked by killes a while ago to look after the front page and since 
then haven't had to do very much. On the whole, the 90ish people with rights 
to promote do a good job. The only thing I've demoted up to this point is 
some local group events back when we were first settling on a policy for 
events on the front page. And I had no backlash from that. This is the first 
time a maintainer has flamed me for demoting something and then went behind 
my back and re-promoted it, even knowing that other admins agreed with me 
and it wasn't a unilateral action on my part. Personally, I don't see this 
as a breakdown of the system but simply an individual abusing his rights.

The frontpage is pretty common sense, IMO. Put up things that will bring 
people to Drupal and announcements the community needs to know about. It 
should be a happy place, not a flame fest. Ask yourself, if you were new to 
Drupal and saw this post, would you turn around and not come back? Common 
sense is all that's needed. If you are unsure, file an issue or hop on IRC 
and converse with other admins. I'm even going to go so far and say I feel 
that promoting your own post is fine if it's something that belongs there. I 
don't think him promoting his own post was really the problem. It was him 
promoting his own opinionated, controversial post and then repromoting it 
after it was discussed and demoted that was the problem. There's a big 
difference between that and, say, Gábor writing up a release announcement 
and posting it. So I think promoting your own benign post is fine but, for 
goodness sake, if it gets demoted for some reason, don't just repromote it 
without discussing it.

Again, it all comes down to common sense. As long as we all use it, the 
front page will be fine.

Ok, off my soapbox. :)

Michelle