Erlang forums (was Re: PING TEST)

[Michael Truog]

On 12/18/21 1:49 AM, Loïc Hoguin wrote:
> On 18/12/2021 07:09, Contact | Erlang Forums wrote:
>
>> For us a large part of that means fostering a positive inclusive 
>> community, including looking out for those who may be the most 
>> vulnerable and supporting those who we feel need our support and 
>> help. As I said previously, for us, that's what community is all about.
>
> For you, community is about having the power to push your politics, 
> that much is clear. As should be evident for anyone paying attention 
> in the past 10 years, inclusion policies are often just about 
> excluding people who do not conform to your political and/or 
> philosophical views. This is not to be confused with apolitical 
> "inclusion" such as building a ramp for people who can't climb stairs, 
> or making a site text-reader friendly, which are about enabling access 
> to everyone.

This is an important point to focus on.  A forum by its very nature, 
with a login session, is meant to be a centralized control on public 
communication.  The Erlang forums doesn't have enough transparency to be 
able to claim neutrality.  Who does it represent?  What businesses is it 
meant to promote?  What countries does it represent?  What political 
purposes is it meant to support?  Is it only supporting Erlang/OTP as a 
Swedish R&D project, or is it supporting UK consulting related to 
Erlang/OTP?  All people have biases and for advertising/marketing 
purposes, different influence shapes communication to influence people's 
minds.

If the ownership and operation was publicly associated with the Erlang 
Ecosystem Foundation (https://erlef.org/), it would look better.  
However, then you would still have difficulty justifying your 
self-proclaimed task of inclusivity.

In the past I did attempt to use the Elixir forum.  My account was 
deleted at some point though I never used the forum to post anything.  I 
found that experience the opposite of inclusive, but I assume it was 
related to technical failures.  With consulting much money is made by 
exclusion while virtue signaling by talking about inclusion.  Exclusion 
is a natural part of advertising/marketing because it represents the 
loudest voice in the room, that gets the most attention and eventually 
the most money as a result.

So, it is important to keep the mailing lists as a more neutral 
communication medium that accepts everyone globally in the same way.  A 
forum is unable to accomplish that simple basic task.

Best Regards,
Michael