<p dir="ltr">Noel,</p>
<p dir="ltr">I agree that people should be able to comment freely without having to declare their affiliations. When they stand for an important council position it's a bit different though.</p>
<p dir="ltr">At that point I think all candidates should provide us with enough context to make an informed voting decision. I'm certainly more likely to vote for someone who I know a bit about than someone who is a complete cipher.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Note that I'm not speaking about David specifically. I like to know a bit about all of the candidates.<br></p>
<p dir="ltr">Regards, <br>
Neill Cox</p>
<p dir="ltr">Sent from a phone. Please forgive brevity and "interesting" auto corrections</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On 20/12/2014 1:46 PM, "Noel Butler" <<a href="mailto:noel.butler@ausics.net">noel.butler@ausics.net</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div style="font-size:10pt">
<p>Chris,</p>
<p>Fair enough, but, should he have to disclose it? Think about it before you answer.</p>
<p>How many of us have affiliations with multiple organisations, should we be declaring everything everywhere any time we make a comment, regardless of where that comment is made? No, of course not.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px">If Sam was singing the praises of LA, would people like Steve Walsh and all who agree with him, be making such a fuss? No, of course they wouldn't.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px">Except in that case, I *would* find it most appropriate that he declare his membership, since when *praising* the organisation people should be aware that someone in media who's publicly supporting an organisation is a member, to be aware that it may be exaggerated hype, to get more people interested... after all *that* it's a form of free positive advertising.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px">You have to take the good with the bad, and if you don't like what a journo writes, you look at what he/she wrote, then address those issues, and one day, that journo just might, give the organisation a positive mention. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px">Perhaps the 2015 council will look at Sam's gripes, and do something about it. Perhaps set up an anonymous (with spam bot protection of course) suggestion box, where members can lodge any issues, and LA as a whole can address them. I say anonymous, because there are a lot of folk here who jump on bandwagons to support their mates, when they seemingly have NFI, this way, even those "heroes" can bring something to councils attention without upsetting their friends, I've noticed over the years trying to do that on mailing lists just drags in the hords of renta-crowds, as I call em, those that don't think for themselves but just backup their mates no mater what and tehrefor are reluctant to bring up an issue they think should be addresses, but that's not just a LA issue, it's a general problem :)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px">Disclaimer: Since some people may be wondering - no, I don't know Sam, no, I don't know David, but I do know how to look at things from all sides before making a conclusion, or jumping in on some bandwagon, or trying to influence the membership at an election time, which this really does border on.</span></p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p> </p>
<p>On 20/12/2014 05:15, Chris Neugebauer wrote:</p>
<blockquote type="cite" style="padding-left:5px;border-left:#1010ff 2px solid;margin-left:5px">
<pre>Noel,
On 20 December 2014 at 03:13, Noel Butler <<a href="mailto:noel.butler@ausics.net" target="_blank">noel.butler@ausics.net</a>> wrote:</pre>
<blockquote type="cite" style="padding-left:5px;border-left:#1010ff 2px solid;margin-left:5px">I see nothing written there that is false or misleading, in fact I only pondeer why "Sam" did not join LA if not already a member, and run for council to change those things.</blockquote>
<pre>As our Secretary, Kathy Reid notes in [<a href="http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/65994-linux-australia-puts-curbs-on-mailing-lists#comment-1681080894" target="_blank">0</a>], Sam is a member of Linux
Australia, and fails to disclose this fact in his writings about Linux
Australia.
--Chris
[0] <a href="http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/65994-linux-australia-puts-curbs-on-mailing-lists#comment-1681080894" target="_blank">http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/65994-linux-australia-puts-curbs-on-mailing-lists#comment-1681080894</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
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