New PLUG List - Was: [PLUG] Vulgarity
Wil Cooley
wcooley at nakedape.cc
Fri May 31 04:49:45 UTC 2002
Also Sprach Russ Johnson <russj at dimstar.net> on Thu, May 30, 2002 at 06:55:48PM PDT:
> It's not a question of what's clean and what's not.
>
> Would you tell your boss ANYTHING with the word f*** in it? Would you speak
> to customers that way?
>
> Those are rhetorical questions. If you say you would, I don't believe you.
> At least, not while trying to keep your job. :)
With my customers, I maintain a protocol, whereby I don't curse
until they do, which usually doesn't take long. And most of my
bosses have cursed more than I or Jeme do. In fact, as far as I
can remember, everyone I've known who works with computers curses
like this. It comes with the job and the usual level of frustration.
> All I am suggesting is that we assume that we're all professionals
> here, and act accordingly. The list is a great resource, with or
> without the cussing. It's a better customer resource without.
But it's not a "customer resource". It's a mailing list, an
informal, social organization. It's not anyone's unpaid tech
support helpdesk. IBM or Linuxcare or Caldera will gladly provide
you one for $125-$250/hr. If you want a "professional" helpdesk,
then hire one. Don't ask people to share knowledge for free
(as in beer) and be an ass about how they do it. I get irritated
with people who can't remember the difference between "their" and
"they're", but I don't bitch about it.
> I'm always amazed at the number of times I'll be looking something up
> on the net, and the plug list archives are at the top of the list. What
> we say here is seen by *LOTS* of people.
> We all talk about promoting linux in schools, in the workplace, at
> home, everywhere. If Joe CEO gets to looking around, and everywhere
> he looks he's assaulted by words that many consider offensive, he's
> not going to consider linux as a serious alternative. Mostly because
> what he sees looks like a bunch of middle school kids trying to sound
> older than they are.
Welcome to the Internet. If they're going to get scared off by
reading one or two uses of "fuck" a week, they'll run screaming
if they ever read even only a few messages posted by Linus or look
for firewalling help from Rusty Russell.
> It most definitely does *NOT* look like professionals trying to promote
> a better computing system.
Like Linus said, when it stops being fun, I'll stop doing it.
Wil
--
W. Reilly Cooley wcooley at nakedape.cc
Naked Ape Consulting http://nakedape.cc
* Linux and Network Consulting *
irc.linux.com #orlug,#lnxs
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.
-- H.L. Mencken, "A Mencken Chrestomathy"
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 232 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.pdxlinux.org/pipermail/plug/attachments/20020530/75261b88/attachment.asc>
More information about the PLUG
mailing list