I think the same and then I stop and wonder what a grumpy old man i'll turn into.

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I cancelled my netflix subscription. The defamatory statements made in Queen's Gambit was the last straw for me >

The strange thing is that understanding a language is about more than just the language itself or dialect. You also have to consider the cultural background because that will influence the way certain words are used or defined. This also ties into cultural references and idioms that may not have a direct translation in other languages.

So for the USA, we have a bunch of people speaking English but the cultural backgrounds change. When talking in person it's less of an issue but via the internet the body language is lost which can make it more difficult.

• The southwest has a lot of spanish flavor.
• You have the French-based Creole in the southeast.
• NYC has inner city slang.
• If native american groups start using the internet more we will also have to deal with language stems completely unrelated to everything else on the planet.
• We also get a lot of immigrants bringing asian and indian references in.

Basically, it's entirely possible to use a word that seems benign to you, but has connotation in other countries that is aggressive or insulting.

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Well, that is true. I think Darth had that problem (I miss Darth) but once you move to another country you have to adapt or stay within "your community." If someone cannot or will not speak the proper language of the country they live in, they will not do well.
If I can't understand the person on the other end of the phone who represents a company I do business with, they will lose my business. I'm in the process of looking for another ISP as, for a month now, I've been trying to find information about services, but they don't have it on their website (and they are a huge company) and every time I've tried to call I end up talking to a computer and then someone in Mexico or The Philippines.
There is a lady in a local store who moved over here from Asia a couple of years ago just before the pandemic. Her employer requires she take English lessons, but the pandemic put that on hold. I go by a couple of times a week and help if I can. I've given her a list of words to learn and this morning helped her write a report about minor damage done to the property overnight. She knows enough to run the cash register, so she keeps her job.
I Guess, what I am trying to say is, slang is not acceptable for business purposes.
Reminds me of what someone said when I was overseas in the Service. It went something like, be careful from whom you learn the local language. You may think your bar girl girlfriend taught you to speak properly, but when you meet someone, instead saying "pleased to meet you," what you may actually be saying is, "Yo, motherf**ker, how's your mama?"

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A few years ago at a LUG in my area there was a discussion about some of the chaos going on in the Linux community with people getting angry at each other and shit.

I mentioned that a lot of people don't seem to have very good "Problem Solving Skills" which results in a lot of arguments over bugfixing. One guy immediately asked "What problem?" which confused the crap out of me.

He clearly didn't understand that "Problem Solving" is an educational concept that is taught in our public education system. Or so I thought... I was surprised by the fact that he had never heard that term before since it was a common topic when I was in school. These days it's become more apparent that our education system is not synchronized so people in the USA often learn very different meanings for the same term. Add people from the rest of the planet to the discussion and watch as chaos reigns supreme BWUAHAHAHA!

Anyway I made my point. I feel like if everyone slowed down a little bit then jeremy could set down his banhammer.

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And also take into account that Europeans are a lot more direct whichm often seems aggressive or rude especially to english speaking people or people with an asian background.

Arses. Asses are donkeys.

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As I was telling the lady in the local store this morning, English can be a difficult language as the same word can have four different meanings depending on how it is used (context).
But, you are right about the educational system. It has been dumbed down to the point a college degree doesn't mean much. Many jobs that require a college education today only required completion of the 9th grade in the 1950s and, probably into the '60s.
It started with my generation, the "baby boomers."
My mother graduated from high school in the mid 1930s (I'm old, but not as old as that would make it seem. ). Many, many years later, after I had graduated from college, she showed me a copy of the examination she had to pass to get her high school diploma. I'm embarrassed to admit I'm not sure I could have passed that test.
At this point, the public school system in this country is a joke. The kids are not being taught what the need, they are being taught to "feel good" about themselves. I'm sure there are exceptions, perhaps kids who went to private schools, but the young people I have met in recent years have been not been the sharpest knives in the drawer. I've been left absolutely speechless at what these people don't know...........

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"I don't care because Twitter is not a real place." Dave Chappelle.
Ok, so let's call it "divisive" or "politically charged" or "disruptive to rational discourse". It's all of those.
Agreed. He overstepped boundaries, and it is impossible for us to know how many times he was warned if at all. It's between him and the forum owner.

To get back a little closer to On Topic, I have noticed a considerable uptick in ALL Linux posts on YouTube lately and especially (and more important and pleasing to me) interest in Slackware due to the buzz around Slackware v15. I expect that will increase once Final Release is Official (considering some already actual Slackware users still don't trust Current or Release Candidates) and I'm glad Patrick is so thorough and has such high standards. It's already even as Release Candidate, getting substantial praise even from Arch users. It's pretty damned exciting really.

To try to cap the tangent, I'm glad Jeremy offered reinstatement even in the ban explanation and I hope igadoter understands that distinction and is motivated to take Jeremy up on the offer.

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That's why I think it's important to be careful in how we approach new users. Renewed interest in the distro will ultimately attract people who are not just new to Slackware, but new to the idea of Linux in general. It really doesn't look good for any of us if we incorrectly accuse someone who is legitimately new to Linux of being a troll, no matter how annoying their attitude might be.

Slackware is still the original* distro so it's not unexpected for people to want to go back and try linux in its most pure form

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I feel like this thread may have gone off the rails a bit. If these topics are important to discuss, and they may very well be, then they deserve a thread of their own that is not limited to the Slackware community and is correctly identified using an appropriate title.

As for the banned individuals, I don't think it is a good thing to discuss events we do not have all the information on, and where the individuals involved cannot comment or defend themselves.

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That's why I think it's important to be careful in how we approach new users. Renewed interest in the distro will ultimately attract people who are not just new to Slackware, but new to the idea of Linux in general. It really doesn't look good for any of us if we incorrectly accuse someone who is legitimately new to Linux of being a troll, no matter how annoying their attitude might be.

Slackware is still the original* distro so it's not unexpected for people to want to go back and try linux in its most pure form


Very, very true.

At the same time, I think it's idiotic to debate with new users or engage in polemics about systemd vs. init, or dependency tracking vs. full install. These tend to be the most annoying and "hot" issues in (mostly ignorant) threads. It might be nice to have a permanent sticky thread that addresses these major basic differences and the merits of each as a *design choice & decision* rather than coached in terms of better/worse, as it always seems to go in sporadic threads that individual users (aka, ignorant wankers) create regularly, often to the irritation of the larger community of dedicated Slackware users. Surely there must be some way to quickly and concisely address the differences between Slackware and all the rest, intelligently, and thereby cut some of these regular yet repetitively ignorant posts off at the head. Too many of these posts fill the board already.

I have noticed a considerable uptick in ALL Linux posts on YouTube lately and especially (and more important and pleasing to me) interest in Slackware due to the buzz around Slackware v15.

This can only be a good thing. I hope a new generation of users finds their way to Slackware.

I'm glad Patrick is so thorough and has such high standards. It's already even as Release Candidate, getting substantial praise even from Arch users. It's pretty damned exciting really.

Couldn't agree more. BDFL's purity of vision across 3 decades is a subject in itself.

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In a previous post I expressed my opinion that I find the ban on igadoter sufficiently justified. On the other hand I really really hate to silence people, unless we are absolutely sure that the ensuing chaos outweighs the benefits of free speech. So I am searching ways to find a compromise in our case. Apparently there is a fair number of people thinking the ban was too harsh.

Some of us have suggested restricting controversial topics (systemd etc.) to a dedicated thread. I sympathize with this idea, but perhaps a single thread would be too restrictive. Could we have a sub-forum for such things? Regular users could make their discussions in the main forum if they wish to, but those who would otherwise get banned could be asked to continue posting in the sub-forum only. They would have a way to make their case and we would be saved from the clutter they create in the main forum. That would be good enough for me. The restricted members may even be allowed to post outside the sub-forum provided their posts are strictly technical in nature.

My . I think it is time to shut this thread down. That all I'm gonna say about it.

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I think LinuxQuestions.org should not be the platform to host this kind of discussions. There's IRC for that. Point people who want to discuss controversial topics to the ##slackware channel on Libera.Chat and leave LQ.org the place to ask intelligent questions and get intelligent answers.

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