What is so difficult to just post a 'Thanks!' to a thread here in off-topic? Here's what I think:Thanks! should not be available in off-topic, the same way off-topic posts do not count to post count If it should be, remove Thanks! from maemo.org karma computation. Why get karma for talking about religion, politics, your dog, or your favorite sci-fi movie. If it needs to be in the karma, there should be something to counter act it like a No Thanks! or some kind of negative reputation. While we're at it, lets implement an automatic ban (for a week) for members like getting No Thanks! on a post, from say 30 senior members. Maybe we should just remove Off-topic
Are we being too harsh on the GA? Honestly, I have NOT encountered any offense/irritating/rough to search sort of thing (of course, from my own standard) postings from GA for a long time. I think some of the old timers here still remember the old razar sharp toned GA. For me, I just see that he, 1) tones down and mellow alot nowadays, 2) works very hard behind the scene, maemo.org council type of things, 3) works very hard in helping to make a smooth transition of the maemo talk thingy, (not to my likeness, but this is not the subject) ...AND nobody seems to notice/acknowlegde that! I know, it is fun to pick on GA (me too, sometimes, he is such a celeb here) lets NOT overdo and drive GA into the other directions. PB: sorry to hijack the thread, just want to stop the rain before it pours. bun
People discussing an issue is the only way to come to a consensus. Polls are not consensus. Polls are a bunch of people voting for whichever option they think is best with nobody arriving at any sort of agreement in the end (i.e., majority rule). Whoever manages to dredge up the most votes "wins" (and with the voluntary response and small sample size, forums polls are hardly accurate). Polls tend to ignore minority viewpoints and tend to arrive at solutions which (depending on the number and type of poll options) are agreeable primarily to the proponents of the winning option, which, with enough poll options, is likely to not even be a majority. The way to come to a consensus is to do basically exactly what you're doing now with these polls, but minus the polls. Bring up your issue, propose whatever you want (although starting out with proposals can stymie more interesting discussion on some issues), then have a discussion about the issue and arrive at a consensus that's generally agreeable to as many parties as possible. Not a voting result that you can use as a bat to beat everybody else with into doing whatever it says.
I promise not to create a poll asking if polls are good or bad.