On 6/27/05, Greg DeKoenigsberg <gdk(a)redhat.com> wrote:
A Fedora letterman's jacket. You know, like the one all the
jocks wore in
high school.
I think this idea is fun, but flawed. Letterman jackets are a great
image (think competition, champions, popular kids) and are great
recognition tools. They invoke a sense of belonging and achievement
in the same way the green jacket does for the Masters, yellow jersey
for guys named Lance Armstrong, etc.
However, as a promotional tool, I think it's the wrong direction. It
sets a tone of inclusion, and possibly exclusion. Sure, people can
look up to the "lettermen," but it's only a matter of time before
people feel like they're being put into lockers. This is only due in
part to the demographics of Linux.
Being involved in LUGs and LUG-like orgs, I've spent a lot of time
thinking about how to make intelligent discussion accessible.
Schwag/swag/whatever is supposed to achieve that goal, but varsity
jackets don't fit the profile.
Matt Frye
Class of '93
"Letterman" in band and debate.