Well...

I've been looking for the opportunity to inject this personal observation and Kathy just opened the door.

There's been division and controversy here as long as I've been a member, but it really ramped up with the N900 release. There really is a different default flavor at least to Talk now (other side of the .org fence seems largely unaffected, no surprise).

I do see that membership here is fairly polarized now, with a huge influx of new members with no obvious bent toward community or contribution, but rather a "help me NOW" mentality. We joke about punctuation and grammar in another thread but I admit that as an old fogey and writer especially I am very put off by the "omgwtfbbq1111!!!11" posting style that seems to be increasing. It works for gaming forums-- but NOT IMO this community.

As elitist as it may sound, I would prefer we revert back to a more developer/tester/enthusiast/etc norm and cut the "Help me NOW!!!" contingent loose to find other homes, like Howard's Forum.

I'll endure hatemail for that sentiment I'm sure but I think we need a narrower focus and highly-specific purpose. I don't see help desk to the world as that purpose. There's better places for it.

Now, please note that I don't exclude "noobs" at all. Someone like RevdKathy who plopped in as a so-called "bear with little brain" but look at her now: blogging on Maemo, ramping up in phenomenal short order, driving projects, and helping people in a noob-to-noob bootstrapping operation.

THAT is the sort of new user I'd prefer to cultivate.

Now, I don't know how to accomplish a "user jettison", especially diplomatically... I'm just expressing my preference. Splintering a community doesn't have to be a bad thing-- it's a normal evolutionary process. The bad part is how humans handle it when it becomes a serious issue requiring resolution...

EDIT: actually I just had a brainfart...

what if we ran TWO forums here under the maemo.org umbrella-- one with strict community focus, and one for peer-to-peer support? I think that would be a HUGE help.