in reply to Feature Request: Most Divisive Nodes
Personally, I think this sounds great. I like divisive conversation, I like having my ideas challenged. I liked needing to back them up. I think debate is healthy.
One of two things hopefully come out of it.
I proudly wear the label of heretic. Dogma should be questioned and re-evaluated and modified and grow and be scrapped when necessary. I'm reminded of the story of the 5 apes, which I shall repeat here for those that don't know it:
Put five apes in a room. Hang a banana from the ceiling and place a ladder underneath the banana. The banana is only reachable by climbing the ladder.
Have it set up so any time an ape starts to climb the ladder, the whole room is sprayed with ice cold water. In a short time, all the apes will learn not to climb the ladder.
Now... take one ape out and replace him with another one (Ape #6). Then disable the sprayer. The new ape will start to climb the ladder and will be attacked unmercifully by the other four apes. He will have no idea why he was attacked. Replace another of the original apes with a new one and the same thing will happen, with ape 6 doing the most hitting.
Continue this pattern until all the original apes have been replaced. Now all of the apes will stay off the ladder, attacking any ape that attempts to, and have absolutely no idea why they are doing it.
This is how company policy and culture is formed.
Not questioning why things are done a particular way can keep you from coming up with newer, better ways to do it.
Of course, this is all in the ideal, which is pretty far removed from the internet with its more colorful characters. So it might not work in practice, but I'd love to see it tried. What's the worst case scenario? Put the feature in, let it sit for a few weeks or months or whatever. If it's useful, then keep it. If it causes problems, then scrap it. No harm in trying.
Update: Fixed the really comical typo that Limbic~Region pointed out down below.
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Re^2: Feature Request: Most Divisive Nodes
by Limbic~Region (Chancellor) on Aug 09, 2006 at 12:54 UTC | |
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Re^2: Feature Request: Most Divisive Nodes
by rodion (Chaplain) on Aug 13, 2006 at 13:57 UTC | |
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Re^2: Feature Request: Most Divisive Nodes
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Aug 08, 2006 at 22:32 UTC |