Maintaining civil discussion

[Pavel Minaev]

Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have a minute of your time for a somewhat
off-topic post that I nonetheless feel to be sorely needed...

I've been subscribed to this mailing list pretty much since it was created,
because I am interested in the evolution of the design of this feature. What
makes me extremely uncomfortable, however, is the amount of veiled personal
attacks in the discussions going on here. I don't want to point fingers at
anyone in particular, but overall, I feel that the resulting atmosphere is
not particularly conductive to rational discussion on the topic - and, while
this has been the case very early on already, it has really blown up
recently. IMO, the noise-to-substance ratio now is at the point where the
usefulness of the list is rapidly diminishing; furthermore, I suspect that
some people may be intentionally refraining from posting anything so as to
not get insults in response (I do, for one).

Can we please have some respect towards fellow posters, and maintain a
polite, civil and professional discussion on the topic of the list, without
snarky sidelines and thinly veiled claims that "I'm smarter than you"
(regardless of your credentials, professional level, experience etc)? And
even when you feel that the other person does not return that courtesy, give
them the benefit of the doubt - it may be a misunderstanding on your behalf,
or even an accidental bad choice of words on theirs - especially as some
participants are not native English speakers.

Thank you, and I hope no-one gets offended any further over my post.