[Twisted-Python] more on IRC frustration
Mentioning IRC frustrations in my message to paul reminded me of something. There is one stylistic hint in particular I'd like to point out, because it causes the most misunderstanding, and it seems as though it may be particular to our peculiar IRC subculture. If you're in #twisted and somebody says something like this: <usr> Hi there! I am a user with a proble integrating widgets and frobules, and there seems to be a problem with version 2.5-X of Twisted. <dev> i guess you are just an idiot then! haha idiot Though I seriously doubt such a straightforwardly hostile exchange would occur, watch the punctuation in the #twisted regular's phrase. If it follows the pattern <dev> sentence with no punctuation! additional sentence it is most likely intended as sarcasm, whereas if it is phrased with mroe conventional grammar and punctuation, <dev> I guess you're just an idiot, then. Heh. Idiot. Then you should really be offended :-). Other cues of sarcasm include use of the word "r" (for "are"), "si" (for "is"), and "teh" (for "the") We rarely make those typos unintentionally.
On Tue, Sep 30, 2003 at 01:34:15PM -0400, Glyph Lefkowitz wrote:
Mentioning IRC frustrations in my message to paul reminded me of something.
There is one stylistic hint in particular I'd like to point out, because it causes the most misunderstanding, and it seems as though it may be particular to our peculiar IRC subculture. If you're in #twisted and somebody says something like this:
That's all pretty obscure. Honestly, if we're going to require people to understand #twisted's in-jokes to be able to participate usefully, then I'd rather we discouraged use of #twisted for giving advice and discussing code with non-devs. Being apparently rude to Twisted newbies is no better than being really rude to them, in terms of damage done to Twisted's reputation, and the reputation of its development team. How is a #twisted newbie going to know to read this? How are they going to know who the regulars are? If they get pissed off, are they really going to feel better about being told "you just don't get our sense of humour?" I'd like to offer a stylistic hint -- but for the development team. If you don't have something positive to say to a newbie, even if they seem to be clueless, please please please consider not saying anything to them. Let a more sympathetic or tactful person respond instead. We really should be trying to remove barriers to participation, not fortifying the existing ones. It saddens me to think that we're driving away potential contributors because we arbitrarily require them to be thick-skinned, regardless of their technical abilities. -Andrew.
participants (2)
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Andrew Bennetts -
Glyph Lefkowitz