On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 02:10:49PM +1100, Ben Finney wrote: > > Pedantic, repeated insistence on a language distinction that no one > > else in the Debian community has a hangup over, while comically > > stereotypical as a concept, does nothing to advance Free Software and > > is bloody annoying to read. > Okay, I accept that you view the message that way. It was written in the > spirit of seeking clarity in communications about technical topics, and > was not intended to annoy. Did you honestly find the message you were replying to unclear, or think that other people would? I find this hard to believe; I think the original message was unambiguous, and entirely consistent with the non-RFC usage of the term "header" among Debian developers. I myself am an unrepentant grammar nazi, but I try to refrain from correcting people's grammar on lists because as much as it grates on me to see native speakers lose at English, the mistakes are almost never actually an impediment to understanding, and such corrections come /at the expense of/ the technical discussions that we're meant to be having. > If this is about *style of* communication, I'm not sure what about the > style is objectionable or how my style in that message would best be > modified. I see it as a polite message; perhaps someone else can shed > light if that's not the case for them. The "style" here is a pattern of correcting people on matters that are at best incidental to the subject at hand (while either failing to recognize that common usage is against you, or failing to accept that this means you're not going to change the prevailing practice). > Is it rather that you object to the topic of discussion? Do you think > that raising the topic of terminological precision should bar an > applicant from being accepted as a Debian Developer? No, the issue is not the topic, it's the context in which you choose to *raise* the topic. If the topic at hand had been a patch which *used* the word "header" inconsistently with the email RFCs, it would be reasonable to make sure we were getting the language right; but in this context, it's a distraction. -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/ slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
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