This distro is based on one of the most bleeding edge systems in the Linux world, always moving forward and when things go south, it gets fixed while rolling without losing direction. The nature of such a system attracts a certain type of people, the type that wants to be on top of their game, doesn’t avoid a challenge and is on a constant road of renewal.
In a way, you can say we’re a pretty awesome bunch of adventurers over here, comparing to our peers on other distros, and I have to say that this community has a very friendly and open view towards each other. This is actually a stellar achievement, since an operating system is binding us together which brings an international mixed group of people together from different walks of life.
In overall, there’s nothing to complain on you all, but once and again, tiny cracks appear on the surface and I’m talking about really tiny cracks in the communcation towards each other.
In an earlier article, I already shared our point of view on how we see you and the way you are interacting with each other. Recently, some communnity members pointed me to a discussion on the forum that is dividing the community and I have to say that it is a tricky one, since I understand both sides.
The reason is a joke that is posted on one of our threads and humour is very subjective. This joke seems very innocent to the one and very offensive to the other and as I said before, I understand both sides and to make you understand it better, I’m going to tell you a little history about myself.
At age sixteen, I came out as gay to the world and trust me, back in the eighties no one called out a parade for you doing that. As you can imagine, the remarks and behaviour I got thrown at, weren’t the mildest one but I didn’t care, people were talking about me before I came out and all I wanted was to get the truth out, instead of hiding behind a rock for others and most importantly for myself. Now that issue was taken care of, I used my sexual orientation as a shield, so nobody could hurt me anymore.
Back home the news was no big deal, having a sister who was a professional balletdancer and parents who had several gay and lesbian friends meant that I didnt have a hurdle to take on the homefront.
At age nineteen, I received a notice to fulfill my military duty and since I didn’t know exactly which study I had to pick, I couldn’t get out of it. There was a choice, I could serve my duty in The Netherlands or perhaps Germany or I could join the UN, and the latter was a choice out of free will and not forced in any way, so I chose the latter.
This was in the early nineties and the war in the Former Yugoslavia was raging. Since my military duty was mandatory, I was convinced that serving my duty that way was better than polishing shoes and marching without purpose somewhere in The Netherlands or Germany.
Back then, I was no Bear Grylls so to say and when I joined the training I got a lot of nasty remarks and behaviour thrown at me, but I was adament to earn that blue beret and be one of the soldiers that embarked that plane to make amends, no matter how much more push ups or heavier load I had to take to prove myself equal to my straight recrutes.
Whenever someone made a remark in general about someones behaviour being a nancy or a faggot, I jumped.
To make a long story short, I made it and went to Croatia as a bluehelmet. When I was there, that “macho” behaviour wasn’t as macho as during training, but remarks about calling eachother a Nancy boy was still there.
Without getting into details, the situation over there in Croatia went very grimm when I just arrived and we were counting on each other to get through it. During those times, the bond with each other gets stronger and you talk about fears and other feelings. One of my mates was pointing me out that everyone accepted me for who I was, but that those nancy remarks were just a joke and had no deeper meaning to it.
At that time, hearing the words that they completely accepted me, was already big step won and I decided to use those jokes to get it over with. In a way that helped, because the other guys and girls, were suddenly aware of the akwardness when I said it.
Back to the present, we’ve come a long way since then about tolerating each other. Making jokes about gender, race or sexual orientation is a thing from the past. Having a variety of people over here means that a certain sense of humour or even innocent remarks is in the eye of the beholder.
I understand that there’s a generation out there who don’t see the harm of a nancy remark or remarks about women, I grew up with them.
On the other hand there’s a generation out there that grew up with the results of fights fought in the past, so no one can blame them either for calling someone on that behaviour.
In the beginning of this article I called us a group of adventurers that is constantly moving forward. Show that adventurous nature also in your behaviour towards each other and think twice before posting an innocent joke in your eyes.
Let’s rolll this community further into the future, just like our system does, go forward.
or 
reaction would have been a perfectly appropriate response, in my opinion.
