Ken,
I really don't want to subscribe to another list to continue this
dialogue, i.e., [email protected], but we have drifted outside the
realm of the users list. If you want to continue off list, just don't
change the subject line or my filters will frag your email.
ken green wrote:
On 2005-09-13 11:33 PM, Doug Thompson wrote:
Not so. But I didn't see anyone so committed to their suggestions for
improvements that they offered to (help) rewrite the documentation.
I don't know if offering to help rewrite the documentation merits
sentiments that anyone who disagrees with your suggestion has a narrow
view of the problem.
That isn't what I said. My statement was
"Third, anyone who thinks this suggestion is any more outrageous than
any of the others for correcting the problem of willful ignorance has a
very narrow view of the problem. " which you correctly quoted earlier.
In fact, I agreed with much of what you wrote. But I happen to think
forcing a user to take a quiz is outrageous. We are talking about people
who are primarily non-technical and/or lazy. Do you really think people
that don't bother to read instructions would take a quiz just to install
software? I don't see that furthering the idea of spreading OpenOffice.
It is my intent to be outrageous because there is no solution to willful
ignorance, a phrase which I think I coined to describe the ultimate
state of intellectual laziness. Quizzes, documentation, help files, all
of these, are wasted effort to people who have decided they don't want
to learn, only to be spoon fed. It's the intellectual equivalent to
having Mommy cut up your food so you can eat. Looking at it from the
other side, Gates & Co. could be described as Supermom. That they
contributed to the condition for the past 25 years or so by producing
convoluted and essentially useless documents and help files that
fortified the notion that computers and computer programs are too
complicated to be understood by "normal" people merely cemented their
claim to the title.
All this "intellectual discussion" was doing was contribute to global
warming. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Maybe. But I do hope something gets done. In order for OpenOffice to
become widely accepted by the masses it needs to become widely
acceptable to the masses. A quiz of computer knowledge (and that's
likely how many will interpret it) would only further the idea that OOo
is by geeks for geeks - i.e. you have to know this much just to use the
program.
Hope is not an action verb. And apparently buried too deep in my post
was one of my pet rants: _*BETA*_ software is too dangerous to be
placed in the hands of people who choose to be ignorant, like the nimrod
who made all those outrageous statements that started this thread.
DT
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
