I'm pretty much with NewComer.

I realize that this is not fair and this potentially denies resources to entities which are not, politically, in the mainstream.

Around here, that is just how the cookie crumbles, I suppose.

I am being conservative for a lot of reasons, probably mirroring NewComer.

• Actively depoliticising the LUG to pre-empt unwanted attention of the wrong kind
• Image management; if you date 99 hot chicks and only one ugly one, you'll always be known as the guy that dated the ugly chick.

Sorry for the crude analogy; still on my first coffee.

-- Linux Egypt Lice Resident

whirlpool had the most extreme opinion to cooperate/deal with anybody

add to this that if we smell any trouble from anywhere we flee, we deny, transform into chickens or mice etc..

But we should also mention who seeks whom ? I am against seeking the illegal/prohibited stuff. But if they did seek us, or we did invite them to a gathering. How will this get us into trouble ?

i think that this is one of those situations where we should have a well defined set of rules, or crystal clear course of action towards.
neglecting (for a while) that i'm with newcomer and youssef, i think whatever we decide this should be delt with in an *extremely* uniform manner. we'r either in or out. we can't afford gray on this one.
inconsistent manners or opinions are perfectly acceptable in the scientific domain -stephen hawking just made a U-turn about blackhole theory - but in the political arena it would definitely imply people with no allegiance or worse morons .
as for politics i think we should stay out of it, after all as computer geeks our only allegiance is to our CPU's (and pretty chiks whatever their political setting is)
"Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them."
--Thomas Jefferson

AMG. -When things have gone from bad to worse, The cycle will repeate itself.

I agree that we should have a uniform policy, because otherwise the descision will be based on ideology, and will simply saw discord among eglug members.

as for us being apolitical, this is simply not true, FOSS is a political statement like it or not, whats being discussed here is groups with a broad political agenda, there is no way we as human beings can totaly and absolutly avoid all forms of politics.

cheers,

Alaa

http://www.manalaa.net

"u know i once dream that the office of mobinil is from el 7`os :S and the one that answer u and tell u rasidak a girl called ghada"

{quote=Alaa}I agree that we should have a uniform policy, because otherwise the descision will be based on ideology, and will simply saw discord among eglug members.

as for us being apolitical, this is simply not true, FOSS is a political statement like it or not, whats being discussed here is groups with a broad political agenda, there is no way we as human beings can totaly and absolutly avoid all forms of politics.

cheers,

Alaa

{/quote}

FOSS is only as political as you want to make it. It can be a political statement as in `FOSS is a tool for lowering capital investment requirements for developing nations, therefore it should be a policy of this government' and FOSS can also be `hey cool, this stuff is neat! Look what I can do!'.

It is not political غصب عننا.

talking about software freedoms, licensing issues, more fair trade, no monopolies, access to information, who owns technology, no monopoloiers, all these themes are political, all of them are common when talking about FOSS.

but a political group is one that has a broad political agenda concerning everything, they have a general political ideology and they activly work to promote and support this ideology (as in leftist, rightist, etc.).

the way I see it eglug is a single issue group, the issue has some political overtones that don't seem to dictate or conflict with most mainstream political views (and you'll find someone from each group to claim FOSS is in perfect harmony with their ideology).

I don't mean to enter a debate on what is political and what is not, I'm just pointing out that the goal of being totaly apolitical is (IMO) the same as being apathetic and aimless.

cheers,

Alaa

http://www.manalaa.net

"u know i once dream that the office of mobinil is from el 7`os :S and the one that answer u and tell u rasidak a girl called ghada"

FOSS being a political statment depends largely on context.
the definition of politics as being the process and conduct of decision-making for groups, in the universal context, would make every thing political. which is true if it wer'nt for the word "politics" being overloaded to the extent of abuse.
this word does not refer to the base class anymore, everyone deals with derived class (huh so much for a type safe environment :) )
so you are right FOSS is political according to the base class, but again you are wrong coz FOSS is apolitical according to the derived class
if i don't make any sense (repeated pattern) i mean by the derived class "political politics" i.e. any thing that uses words like religion, government, party etc.

P.S. sorry if don't post alot, by these last few weeks, i'v had a dangerously in-human work rate.

AMG. -When things have gone from bad to worse, The cycle will repeate itself.

hehehehehehe this is the best name for it :-)

so yeah what we are discussing here is political politics.

cheers,

Alaa

http://www.manalaa.net

"u know i once dream that the office of mobinil is from el 7`os :S and the one that answer u and tell u rasidak a girl called ghada"