Re: gEDA-user: POLL: On politeness

[John Doty <jpd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Feb 24, 2006, at 5:06 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:

>   I don't know Marc personally, but I strongly suspect it's just a  
> matter of presentation and perception...I don't think the guy  
> actually intends to be crappy.
>
>   Many people, especially net-newbies, type into an email  
> composition window without thinking of how things are going to be  
> taken on the other end.  Even after communicating via email for 20+  
> years, I am guilty of this myself sometimes...so I can easily  
> envision a less-net-experienced person (no offense Marc) easily  
> falling into this trap.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70179-0.html?tw=wn_index_2

Electronic communication between strangers is often a disaster. I  
work on multi-institutional international projects and although we  
communicate by email, chat, telephone and even video there's no  
substitute for meeting in the flesh. It's often the only way to  
really calibrate a person's attitude. After enough real meetings with  
someone you have some chance of understanding them in the virtual  
ones (but misunderstandings will still crop up).

Politeness surely helps, although I know some people whose attempts  
at politeness in email always seem sarcastic.

John Doty              Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
jpd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx