+1 to your observation. And FWIW, I hesitated for 30 minutes literally before sending this message, deciding to say very little lest I get pulled into some philosophical debate myself :)
Sent from my iPhone On Apr 12, 2011, at 12:10 PM, Hugh Glaser <[email protected]> wrote: > A recent thread included discussion of how to reply to postings. > > For what it's worth, I don't agree that the best way to reply to a posting > about doing something in one system is to say: > "Well this is how I do it in my system." > > At its best, it is hard to understand what the respondent means, because it > entails (at least for the original poster who is looking for feedback on > their system) working out what the respondent's system view is implicitly, > using terms that the respondent finds comfortable, but are often alien to the > poster. > At its worst, the original message is completely lost, as the thread simply > moves to a discussion of the respondent's system. > > It is far better if respondents try to communicate with the poster by > addressing the post directly, using the poster's terms wherever they can. > And it should certainly be acceptable to give the poster feedback, including > comments that may seem negative as well as positive, without having another > implementation or solution in your pocket. > > I, as well as others I know, find the culture that has developed on this list > of responses saying "Well this is how I do it" alienating, and thus sometimes > a barrier to posting and genuine responses, and so actually stifles > discussion. > > Happy to be told I am wrong, or in a tiny minority, without hearing any > proposals for better solutions. :-) > > Hugh
