[TriLUG] an increasingly annoying trend at trilug meetings

[David R. Matusiak]

not to keep beating a dead horse, BUT

this is precisely the reason that i DO NOT ATTEND the trilug meetings any 
longer. for the first two years of my attendance, i thought the meetings were 
great! (informative, jocular, social) there was always some peanut gallery 
commentary, but for the most part it was quiet and restrained.

somewhere along the line, this became the "Every Geeks Night to Be a Comedian" 
and since then i have considered the meatspace meetings a complete waste of time.

ponder this -- if you were /actually/ "such a riot" wouldn't some talent scout 
have offered you a spot at Charlie Goodnights (or another comedy club) already?

there seems to be a boatload of thought going into "how we should structure the 
meetings." hell, i don't care how the meetings are structured, as long as the 
majority of the hecklers would just shut the hell up.

and now it appears that we have lost Rob Day. great! now let's concentrate on 
scaring away THE REST of the people who have contributed or are helpful in any 
way. then when newbies show up, they can learn that Linux is NOT an operating 
system, but instead a horrible, miserable place where you are stuck listening to 
half-assed comics for 3 hours on a thursday nite!

there have been several meetings where i have had to leave in disgust because 
the freakin' presenter (hello? the guy/gal on stage) couldn't get a word in 
edgewise. the night of my actual epiphany was when Sinner and Friend were trying 
to explain security basics to a HUGE crowd (read: potential new members) and 
instead, we had to live thru more dumbass comments than i'd expect to hear at a 
local MS Access Users group.

i walked out that night because i couldn't stand to see my friend be denied the 
ability to present something that he had worked very hard on and to sully a 
rather serious and important topic... all in the name of "socialization."

sheesh. you wanna get "socialized?" turn off the goddamn computer and go take a 
walk. don't take a good movement in the local area and trash it.

more to the point -- if you wanna talk / "be heard" that bad, then come up with 
a topic, gather some valuable info on it, and present it to the group. i would 
gladly defend your right to be heard. after all, you're the one on stage.

and that is all i have to say about that. if your ego is telling you to flame, 
then i suggest mailing me direct, as i only receive digest.
peace,
drm
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m a h t o o z e e a c k  a t  s p e e k e e z e e  d o t  n e t
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Subject: Re: [TriLUG] an increasingly annoying trend at trilug meetings
To: trilug at trilug.org
From: "John F Davis" <johndavi at us.ibm.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 10:07:29 -0500
Reply-To: trilug at trilug.org

Hello Rob and others,

Rob expressed my own feelings exactly.  I'm pretty talkative too, so I
shouldn't be throwing stones.  But
I've often described Trilug as a "smarter-than-you" contest.  Everybody has
to make a follow-up comment.
Sometimes the comedy show is so exacerbating I have to take a break
outside.  Some of my friends were so turned off
by the BS that they don't come anymore.  In fact, one of them also
described the meeting as a comedy show.