Since anything (however stupid it might be) can be patented, I am gonna patent the following:
Title: SYSTEM and METHOD for TROLL CONTROL in open-source projects mailing lists, via Contribution-Points based eMail Limits
Certain mailing lists are more troll-prone than others. For instance, foundation-list, project-list etc. are more troll-prone and attract a lot of noisy crowd than other useful mailing lists like performance-improvement, research, product-XYZ-users-support-list, etc.
These points should be awarded based on people's contribution. Say, for every 2 bugs fixed, you get 1 point. For every 3 queries resolved in user-support mailing list, you get 1 point. For every new software you package for your distribution, you get 1 point etc. Since not many look after support forums, every issue resolved in forums will give you 2 points. (Note: not "every comment in a forum", it is "every issue resolved")
People who have made zero contributions to a project in vital activities like packaging, bug-fixing, documenting, testing, bug-triaging etc. should not be allowed to start a thread in these troll-prone mailing lists. There are no restrictions on questions on legal, technology aspects. But the restrictions apply for questions on abstract areas like Vision, Strategy, Corporate-affiliation etc. where one can talk without making meaning.
known-limitation: Sometimes, even a good contributor will behave child-like and will involve in pointless trolling. Sadly, There is no cure for it :(
I need to hire a patent-writer so that I can get the above crappy, non-sensical idea, written in abstract words with diagrams, flow-chart etc. so that the stupid, lame proposal becomes patent-worthy.
In proprietary software development, corporate people waste time in Meetings. In open-source, we waste time in mailing-list trolls. Atleast, in the latter, we can choose to not-participate and there is a handy option of "Mark all as read".
This really lame post is written in an insomniac night in about 10 minutes, Thanks to Independence.
7 comments:
I am gonna spend the whole night today learning designs, flow chart and all the associated stuff. Patent-writer, nice designation :) I'll apply for the post once I am ready ;)
Nice idea BTW.
I love your creative thinking!
Besides that I agree with you that this thread simply doesn't make sense at all and that dude is a troll I consider it pretty funny (or sad) that you see solving some $whawha_itz_no_works!!! on the forum two times as much "worth" as packaging something.
@bharath Patent-writers earn more money than programmers. So start practicing from now onwards.
@aj Thank You a Lot
@anon Everytime I come across a problem that I cannot solve myself (webcam works in skype but not in cheese, types), when I Google, the best solution is obtained from Ubuntu forums. End users feel more comfortable asking questions in forums than in IRC. I have no doubts that packaging is more tough and more important than answering forums. But Forums are important for a feel-good factor for users and openSUSE can do with more forum participation by hackers. Thanks for visiting by.
Your recent tweets had left an impression that you were against software patents.
"Since anything (however stupid it might be) can be patented" - True. I remember reading about the huge number of patents that exist on the tools/methods to catch a rat.
And talking of software patents, I've heard about patents on open source pdts in Novell. Never got to understand how they would work or who can sue/will get the benefits when a patent infringement is found. If your patent would be an open source patent, I hope I'll get some clarity on that.
@rohini I am still against software patents, philosophically :-)
This post is just meant to be a satirical take on some of the recent mailing list troll that we are facing in openSUSE.
As for NOVL's stand on patents, they won't sue anyone for patent infringement and will be used only for defensive purposes. More details at http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/about_members.php
i liked it that your patent title started with a "System and Method". In my opinion, that's half the work done ;)
and as for trolls, they exist everywhere. pity they can't be identified with a particular smell( like in fantasy stories)
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