My latests posts have attracted a fair number of comments (thank every and each one of you for taking the time… really!), most of them in response to the issue at hand. Every now and then someone questions the validity of one of my chosen topics, claiming that it should be published on Planet X (my blog is syndicated on quite a few planets) because it doesn’t talk about technology. I understand that someone people may not enjoy reading every single topic that may be published (not only by me), for I am one of them… honest!

Anyhow, my friend Jonathan Jesse's comment on my latest post got me thinking… maybe I should write something about this same topic: what do I think about people writing about anything on Planet Ubuntu for instance.

Now, Jonathan… I’m not picking on you bud. :)

I wonder if political posts such as these really should be syndicated on something like planet.ubuntu.com. I know I have different political leanings then you based on the posts that I’ve read and I try to limit my posts to planets to only the topic on hand. Feel free to disagree with me. That’s the beauty of freedom of speech…. I just hope that you aren’t assuming that everyone who posts on planet.ubuntu.com or reads p.u.c agrees with your political ideas.

From the main page at Planet Ubuntu:

Planet Ubuntu is a window into the world, work and lives of Ubuntu developers and contributors.

I most definitely do not assume that everyone who reads Planet X agrees or shares my ideals and/or principals… it would be naive to think that way, and just flat out against Ubuntu (the ideology, not the distro)! Some people like to write howtos… some write about their favorite recipes or music… I reserve my right to talk about the things that are part of my life, sometimes about politics. I don’t expect that every single subscriber will want to read every single word I write… as I mentioned before, I don’t read everything I’m subscribed to. For those posts that don’t tickle my fancy, all I have to do is press the “j” key on Google Reader (or “n” on Liferea) and presto! A brand new post automagically appears!

I would like to hear your view on political posts appearing on something like planet.ubuntu.com

Fair enough. The short answer is: I’d be very interested to know this facet of many of the contributors to open source that are syndicated on these planets. You see, there’s much more about me than translations, BillReminder or my interest in the political future of my nation. I also love fishing, ice hockey, Clint Eastwood’s westerns, Reuben sandwiches, and… and… so much more. Off course I don’t expect that everyone will care about any of these. But there are a few people out there who find this a reasonable way to know the real me, specially when one lives so far away and with no means to meet in person.

The bottom line is that when my blog was added to Planet X, I was never asked to only write about X, or to create a feed that only talks about X. I’m not trying to wash my hands here, but this was the deal offered to me… and I accepted it. Maybe people who control/administer these aggregators will one day change their regulations in order to provide a more specific and filtered content? Until then, I ask all of you guys/gals who may be annoyed by some (all?) of my articles to simply press the “x” key on your news reader of choice… and exercise your freedom of choice.