On Jan 23, 2008 10:10 AM, Stuart Buchanan wrote:
> --- Melchior FRANZ wrote:
> > I've been accused in private mail of poisoning the list
> > climate with messages like these. I'm a bit puzzled.
> > For me OMG is not a prayer, and WTF is not swearing.
> > And PSL *was* a joke compared with Nasal, not because
> > it was done badly. It just never grew up and couldn't
> > do a fraction of what Nasal can do.
> >
> > Looks like I already offend people with what I consider
> > totally harmless. I'll take more communication off-list,
> > then.
>
> That does sound somewhat puzzling.
>
> The wide range of sensitivities and levels of English in the
> community mean that there is plenty of opportunity for words
> to be mis-understood and people to take offence at words
> considered by others to be totally harmless.
>
> All one can do is assume the best of others intentions.
>
> Taking communications off-list is certainly not the answer -
> even the suspicion of off-list decision-making is enough to
> worry some people.
>
> > PS: I don't apologize. :-P
>
> No, but you did explain yourself, which is almost as good :-)
>
> BTW - are you around on IRC any more?
I don't want to drag this out more than necessary, but let me add one
comment of explanation.
I'd like to see things said in a positive way when possible. 99% of the
time if there is something odd, or a bug is found, or somebody says
something incorrect ... it's an honest mistake. If we come out of the
starting gate saying "WTF is xyz" and "xyz is a joke", that has a lot of
opportunity to be hurtful to the person that created xyz.
There are *many* ways to say the same thing without using potentially
inflamatory language. In this case, I don't care about PSL, but if the same
sorts of things are said about something you or I do care about then there
could be a big problem. I'd like to head this off at the pass.
I contacted Melchior in private email expressing my views and concerns ... I
thought in as constructive of a way as possible. I did this because I have
no desire to attempt to attack or embarrass anyone publicly. Melchior wants
to slant that as being a secretive off list attack, so be it. I'm happy to
discuss these private issues out in the open if the other party prefers it
that way.
But here's the deal, there are some things said on this list from time to
time that do need to be cleaned up. I will continue to call people out on
it when I see something that could potentially be a problem. No one likes
to get the heat turned on them ... an angry response is natural. But I want
this to be constructive, I want to help the list operate better and build a
better working and collaborative environment here.
I don't expect everyone to see it exactly my way. I don't expect everyone's
thresholds of objection to be at exactly the same level. And certainly
there are times when we need to deal with tough issues or strong
disagreements on the list.
But at the same time, it's silly, completely pointless, completely
unnecessary, and potentially hurtful to call someone else's work a joke ...
or say WTF in response to someone's code.
I hope we can put this behind us and move forward, but I'm going to call
people out once in a while when I think they've crossed the line ... or are
accumulating too many near line experiences.
Best regards,
Curt.
--
Curtis Olson: http://baron.flightgear.org/~curt/
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