You are going to love this. Was: [SLUG] School Project - Final Update

From: Mark (mark@bish.net)
Date: Wed Sep 04 2002 - 12:34:06 EDT


Watch out Mr. Bishop is going to be making an appearence on this one.
Puts flamesuit on.

On Wed, 4 Sep 2002, David Meyer wrote:
*snip*

> I will tell you now that there is a blurb on our website that mentions the
> school project, but does not mention SLUG.

One question here: Did SLUG or any medium SLUG provide in assisting your
endeavors? If Yes, then The Right Thing To Do(tm) is give SLUG credit on
your website and in every article that showcases the work done. If not,
regardless of your reasoning, you will lose every bit of respect with me
and all others who bore witness to your constant emails asking for help.

> I have been accused of promoting my own company through this project at
> the expense of SLUG. I have been accused of being dishonest regarding
> this project and the involvement of SLUG. Nothing could be further from
> the truth. SLUG is not mentioned on the website because this project
> was to prove Linux could do all we said it could do, and then sell our
> services to the next customer, thus allowing me to PAY those involved,
> all of which come from the group.

I don't know enough about what you have or haven't said or even what
representations you have or have not made yet but you need to understand
one thing. You made those associations through SLUG, an organization
setup for the Linux community. You used SLUG, and were never asked to pay
a dime, and you never will, yet you refuse to give credit to the
organization in which you sought your support?

> I have been advised that it would be significantly more difficult to
> charge for labor if I say on my website that the labor was donated by
> SLUG.

Probably with someone who has an MBA but who has no ethics. It is time
for you to choose if you have any.

> The idea here was to bring some income to those who participated.

You know, I have never seen you say this up until today. I am more prone
to accept this theory, "Here is some 'hush-money' for not saying, you
really are not with my company and since I had no friggin idea what to do
I brought in cheap help. Please go away at the end and I'll email
you if I need you."

> I made no money from the labor of these folks. Yes, I made a small
> amount on the hardware sale, but that was disclosed to everyone right up
> front. I told everyone that my goal was to pay people for their labor
> in these projects in the future, but we needed a project to showcase to
> make that a possibility. Well, we've done that, and SLUG can be proud.
>

Well, if it smells like a duck, quacks like duck, it probably is a duck.
And my above opinion still holds.

And one additional point. SLUG isn't proud, it wasn't paid. The people
who you paid could be proud but not SLUG. It is time you paid SLUG by
telling everyone who asks that this could not have been done without its
help. Then you have paid SLUG and then SLUG becomes proud about this
project. That is how it goes without arguement.

*snip*

> You made it happen, and we (the school and I) appreciate it more than
> you can ever know.

Especially since SLUG made you look so good yet took no credit away from
you I guess?

I hope your endeavor to setup another LUG isn't just a tool to recruit
free help for your company. I hope everyone can see that you will have a
hard time separating your company work from your (linux) community work.
Ask yourself, at these meetings, are you the one who is going to be asking
most of the questions or answering them. If it is the former then you
shouldn't be running a LUG.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Mark Bishop (mark@bish.net) | Computer Engineer |
| 813-253-2197 | Network Engineer |
| http://bish.net | Embedded Programmer |



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