@Jane Wells -

Hi Jane,

Always a pleasure to hear from you.
I fully appreciate that that anyone expressing an opinion does so because they think that they are correct. I'm no different. The difference is that the tone coming from individuals employed by Matt (both at Automattic and Audrey) has changed quite considerably in the last 2 years.

The comments made were that if you were part of and wanted to stay part of "the community" then you should ignore the "vocal minority" even if you think they're right. I received a text from a member of a Government department during the presentation that said "Apparently I'm not allowed to talk to you anymore ;)".

With all due respect, as someone I genuinely like, I think it's all too easy to suggest that many of us are at the aggressive/name-calling stage when simply stating out point of view. It's been the go to defence for about 2 years now, regardless of any objectivity.

Lets not forget that according to 1 core team member this link is the worst Flame War [they] have ever seen on the internet: http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/whats-happening-with-bbpress/page/5#post-64410

Personally, I think it's possibly the politest flame war ever on the internet. It's the Hello Kitty of flame wars, and man I loves me some Hello Kitty.

Jane,

I don't think I'm right all the time, heck i know I physically can't be. But I'm also not automatically wrong every time my opinion differs from that of a core team member.

It is inherently unfair and inaccurate to dismiss a statement to be 100% wrong or unhelpful simply due the source being part of what the core team describe as "the vocal minority".

Every community needs it's Bill Hicks, it's Johnny Cash, it's Gordon Ramsey; otherwise we fall into the trap of only listening to the feedback we want to hear. I may not be liked, and I'm happy to admit I'm wrong some of, if not most of, the time. But the idea that I'm wrong 100% of the time because my opinion is different is a scary scary prospect.