[Foundation-l] Wikimedia main office

Sat May 27 01:12:53 UTC 2006

On 5/26/06, Delirium <delirium at hackish.org> wrote:
[snip]
> I don't find IRC (or "chat" generally) a useful or efficient means of
> communication.  Email gives enough space that people can look up
> sources, consider their positions and arguments, read other material if
> necessary, and then respond.  IRC is a mixture of off-the-cuff and
> prepared remarks, broken up into small bits with a lot of asides and
> chit-chat that you have to sit through in real time.
[snip]

IRC's time constraints, is by large, a primary factor in its
attractiveness. It acts as a great time equalizer, preventing kooks
with unlimited time to prepare their rants from monopolizing the
fourm. Actions are what counts, not how long you can make your
argument.

If someone were to propose such discussions happen on a mailinglist
with a limit of ~100 words per person/day, then I'd find that
agreeable. If you can't make your point in a small space you either
haven't thought about it enough or it's just not a good idea. Brevity
also helps non-native English speakers understand.