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netwrangler
10-19-2007, 05:21 AM
In the early '90's, a couple of geophysical friends introduced me to the internet. The platform of choice then was UNIX. Windows 2.0 was marginally stable. Linux was still a twinkling in Linus' eye.

My friends told me I should learn about Stone Soup, and left it to me to find out about it on the internet on my own. [This was before Google as well. No mean trick to find things on the internet before there was a decent search engine.]

I found that the Legend of Stone Soup represented the underlying philosophy of open software and of forums like this one. Here is a link to one version of the Legend. There are others, but the philosophical message is the same.

http://www.kousi.gr.jp/kousi/syoukai/hp-siryou/stone-soup.html

Is this corny? Well, yeah — but so what? The concept can still work. It is working in this forum.
aiki14
10-19-2007, 06:57 AM
In the early '90's, a couple of geophysical friends introduced me to the internet. The platform of choice then was UNIX. Windows 2.0 was marginally stable. Linux was still a twinkling in Linus' eye.

My friends told me I should learn about Stone Soup, and left it to me to find out about it on the internet on my own. [This was before Google as well. No mean trick to find things on the internet before there was a decent search engine.]

I found that the Legend of Stone Soup represented the underlying philosophy of open software and of forums like this one. Here is a link to one version of the Legend. There are others, but the philosophical message is the same.

http://www.kousi.gr.jp/kousi/syoukai/hp-siryou/stone-soup.html

Is this corny? Well, yeah — but so what? The concept can still work. It is working in this forum.

While there have been some individuals who brought disruption, it does work here for some reason, much less discord than other forums. The level of discourse remains pretty high as well, it's the only forum I participate in.
Just my scallions and herbs...err...opinion.
TonyM
10-19-2007, 10:57 AM
While there have been some individuals who brought disruption, it does work here for some reason, much less discord than other forums. The level of discourse remains pretty high as well, it's the only forum I participate in.
Just my scallions and herbs...err...opinion.

Scallions and herbs? You are too modest, I'm pretty sure you brought something from every food group.