>A flame war written in unformatted plaintext on a public list serve actually makes me nostalgic for simpler times.
As a vi user I'll avoid taking sides on an issue I know nothing about, but when the author stated "...there is also a convention of treating eachother with respect on the mailing lists. Sadly this convention is superficial, and seems only to mean things like not using swear words..." it hit me right in the gut.
It's an issue in many OS projects. Heck, it's a problem in the larger policy world -- a similar sentiment is why I stopped doing technology policy, a childhood dream of mine.