[Typo3] Some feedback to TYPO3 marketeers

[Christoph Koehler]

Sorry guys, I think I need to clarify a little bit.

First, this is totally my opinion. I haven't seen many people who are as  
outspoken about their faith as I am (in sigs for example), so I assume I  
(or we) are the minority here.

> ---> Christopher, your note suggested that you might not respond to  
> technical posts from people whose websites you don'tlike (incl. Rahul,  
> me, Dimitri, and probably others).  Is that what you mean when you say  
> "don't expect any help from me"?

When you have a problem with TYPO3 and post some TS that needs fixed and  
don't mention what it's for, I will help to the best of my ability. I will  
not search all posts for a name, try to figure out if that person runs a  
website that is against what I believe, and then refuse to help or even  
give a moral lecture. It's not that I don't like anyone, but I hope you  
will understand if I am not willing to support something that opposes me  
beliefs. If I don't know what it's for, I won't worry about it. But if  
it's obviously something like porn, I won't.
Is this so weird?


> When I write a note to this list and don't get a response, should I be  
> considering that people have researched my contentand judged me as  
> "anti-Christian" or "against the word of the Bible"?  I ask this as a  
> Christian, publishing Christianwebsites, for Christians!

As I mentioned, we Christians are probably a minority here. I bet most  
people don't care what you do with TYPO3, and they will probably help you.  
I wouldn't think any of those things if nobody answered my posts...


> ---> Say we are talking about some problem with tt_news and I mention  
> the URL of some website I maintain that advocates aChristian teaching  
> that you (or Kasper) might disagree with.  This could be about  
> homosexuality, about war, about thedeath penalty, about abortion, about  
> resurrection.  Whatever. Should I expect our Typo3 conversation to be  
> interrupted bya theological lecture/rant from you, like the one you just  
> gave Rahul?  Is this appropriate?

Sorry, I usually don't give theological lectures and I apologize if it  
offended you. This is not the place, so it won't happen anymore unless  
anyone asks for it.


> Agreed. This is no place for theology. The main question of whether it is
> appropriate to preach these beliefs through a piece of software has been
> lost.
> As a new user, I share the concern over whether certain projects may be
> refused even paid help by the community on the basis that they go  
> against an
> ambiguous set of rules, e.g. something as broad as the term 'New Age'.

I don't think the majority of the community agrees. This was simply my  
opion, not a representation of the opinion of the community.

> Christoph is only confirming this fear by writing this ill-judged  
> statement
> above. I also wonder how many others would share his reluctance to help a
> project that *possibly* goes against their interpretation of a religious
> document.

Ill-judged how? And I am not saying *possible*, I am saying clearly. If  
you have a website that discusses that Jesus has already returned and  
everything layed out in the book of Revelation has already happened, I  
won't deny you help even though I disagree; this is absurd. I don't split  
hairs. You would have to make it pretty obvious that you oppose the ideas  
of the bible. Like porn, etc.

> I think it's important to get to the bottom of this issue. If decision
> makers are put off by a bias such as this, then it is detrimental to the
> acceptance of typo3, which is a marketing concern, surely? It's not a
> question of being able to use typo3 if your project 'goes against the
> bible', it's a question of whether this might affect future support and
> decision making by core members.

How can you call this bias? I am acting according to my moral values. As  
said above, it has to be pretty obvious for me to not help you.
TYPO3 is made by a Christian who professes that openly. If you have a  
problem with using it, don't. I don't represent the community, I represent  
Christ. There are always people in a community that don't conform (for  
lack of a better word, I don't imply anything) to the rest.

> Just curious for that one sentence: "Make sure what you believe is true  
> first."
>
> How do you know that what you (or anyone) believe is true?

No more lectures. If you really want to know, send me an email please.


> I think your comment, "don't expect any help from me", does support
> Rahul's concerns.  Not so much from a fear of being ridiculed, but from
> a greater concern that, the developer/support community might turn their
> back on us and attempt to enforce their interpretation of Kasper's
> wishes, in effect banishing us from the user community if we post
> comments, statements, or articles on our web sites that expresses
> political or religious views that they disagree with.   If we invest
> a lot of time and resources into using typo3 for our web sites, and run
> into any kind of serious technical problems and need help, that can
> become a serious issue.
> This is not really an issue with any other open source project I know of
> because the user community is diverse.  However, if the typo3 community
> repels users who do not share the same views that may not be as true.
> By repel or banish, I mean doing such things as refusing to help them,
> so that they might be forced to go away and choose other projects,
> causing the the typo3 community to be screened and mostly be composed of
> people who share those same views.
> Kasper's comments alone did not really give me that much concern, but
> comments such as yours are more likely to. If there are enough people in  
> the typo3 community that do not feel the
> same as you, that may never be a problem.  However, there may be no way
> to find out for sure until we have committed to using typo3 and have all
> our content up for public view.  So it is understandable that it might
> be a concern for new users, not yet knowing what to expect down the
> road after they are committed, if they run into a serious problem and
> need help, Typo3 is the only project I know of so far that has expressed  
> wishes for
> political and religious restrictions, so this is new and potentially
> concerning territory IMHO.

I hope I explained my point of view well enough above.

Christoph