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Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 09:11:28 -0700
To: "Ken Collins" <kcollins AT pinksheets DOT com>
From: Randall R Schulz <rrschulz AT cris DOT com>
Subject: Re: Blunt Tools (was: cgf does not want private email about
  cygwin)
Cc: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
In-Reply-To: <20010625111149.B1176@pinksheets.com>
References: <20010625101924 DOT C9771 AT redhat DOT com>
 <F1CCDC350108D51180730002A55CA6B00EAD81 AT xmail DOT context DOT com>
 <20010625101924 DOT C9771 AT redhat DOT com>
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Ken,

I don't know about you, but I am a denizen of several lists on a variety of 
topics, and they all seem to be getting progressively more uncivil. I think 
in part there is a culture clash since these lists invariably contain a mix 
of newbies and old salts (I think I'm the latter, with 25+ years of 
programming experience). This tends to cause a mismatch of expectations 
about decorum and what is and is not an appropriate question or answer.

In my better moments I write private letters to certain offenders, 
explaining why their posts are inappropriate and suggesting ways they can 
be better participants, largely by helping themselves on their own.

At other times I tell people publicly that if their logic and expectations 
are so vastly flawed, perhaps they're in the wrong business. Well, I've 
never quite said that, but if I were to generalize, the two things that bug 
me most are people using public fora as their _first_ recourse when faced 
with a bump in the road and the incredible lack of clear thinking ability.

Youngsters who are utterly uncritical about their brilliant ideas are right 
up there on my annoyance list, but I don't like to quash nascent 
creativity. I usually give those people public history lessons and suggest 
that they find some giant on whose shoulders they might well stand.

The Yahoo groups "extremeprogramming" list is hands-down the worst I've 
seen for nonsense, religion and general BS. I had to unsubscribe from that 
one in an effort to manage my blood pressure.

Randall Schulz
Mountain View, CA USA


At 08:11 2001-06-25, you wrote:
> > So, I will be sending this "cgf does not want..." message on a regular 
> basis.
> > Hopefully, it will show up enough that people who search the archives or
> > read email here will get the hint.
>
>Just make it your sig. Nobody will pay any attention to it anyway.
>
>Is it just me, or is the tone of this list getting increasingly curt and
>unpleasant?
>
>Ken Collins


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