Wiki + Mailing List

[Ted Lemon]

I've used mediawiki a bit on controversial topics; unfortunately it's  
no better than a mailing list because it does nothing to quell change  
wars.   Also, it's isolating - I think that if the discussion here  
can be tolerated, it's better because it's cross-pollinating.   Wiki  
discussions tend not to cross-pollinate as much.

Generally speaking, what helps on mailing lists is actually two- 
fold.   First, we need to exercise restraint.   I've replied a couple  
of times in the past day or so when I didn't need to, and so  
contributed noise rather than signal (and perhaps this is another  
instance - if so, I apologize).

And then too, if someone from OpenMoko can step in and say "we hear  
you, here's what we're going to do, please stop talking about it  
now," then that can quell debate - part of what perpetuates debate is  
people feeling that the issue is still open.   Sometimes a certain  
degree of firmness is required to make it stick that the issue is  
closed, of course.   Unfortunately, this is time-consuming, and the  
time it consumes is the most valuable time - that of the people who  
are actually doing the work right now to make this happen.

So maybe we just have to endure for a while.   I suspect this will  
settle out a bit once people have hardware in their hands - real  
hardware is very grounding in comparison to imagined hardware, as the  
iPhone has shown us.   :')