Re: Removing the indent-string quote marker '>' in emails.
On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 09:13:18 -0500 (EST)
Stephen Powell <zlinuxman@wowway.com> wrote:
> On 2010-01-02 at 22:23:25 -0500, Celejar wrote:
> > What's wrong with using technical solutions to solve social problems?
> > Isn't that what things like spam filtering are all about?
>
> I wouldn't call spam filtering a "solution" to the spam problem.
> spam still exists and still gets through, though not as often
> as the spammers would like. I saw a piece of spam posted to this list
> just yesterday. As long as there is sin in the heart of man,
> there will be spam. :-)
>
> Likewise, any technical "solution" to a social problem is not really
> a solution but a management technique. It can't really solve the
> problem, only manage it. It gets down to "why do people do this?"
> There are two possibilities: ignorance and arrogance. Ignorance can
> be fixed through education. Arrogance cannot. If people are doing
> it because they are lazy, or to be obnoxious, you can't fix that
> through education. That's a heart issue. And a certain amount of it
> will get through no matter what technical "solution" is tried.
> That's my two cents worth.
Thanks. I understand the basic point that you and Andrei are making.
I just meant to point out that there's nothing inherently wrong with
implementing a technical solution to a social problem. As to whether a
social solution would be more effective / less expensive in terms of
various resources (time, social costs, emotional capital), that
certainly depends on the natures of both the technical as well as
the social aspects of the specific problem, and no simple rule can cover
all cases.
Celejar
--
foffl.sourceforge.net - Feeds OFFLine, an offline RSS/Atom aggregator
mailmin.sourceforge.net - remote access via secure (OpenPGP) email
ssuds.sourceforge.net - A Simple Sudoku Solver and Generator
Reply to: