From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1OPKmD-0003Qa-6I for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:29:25 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 340BCE0B32; Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:29:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smarthost03.mail.zen.net.uk (smarthost03.mail.zen.net.uk [212.23.3.142]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F8FFE0AEB for ; Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:29:14 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [62.3.120.141] (helo=NeddySeagoon) by smarthost03.mail.zen.net.uk with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1OPKm1-0002mO-Ie for gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org; Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:29:13 +0000 Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:29:13 +0100 From: Roy Bamford Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Tone in Gentoo To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <4C195135.1050702@gentoo.org> (from sping@gentoo.org on Wed Jun 16 23:33:25 2010) X-Mailer: Balsa 2.4.7 Message-Id: <1276802953.2335.2@NeddySeagoon> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Originating-Smarthost03-IP: [62.3.120.141] X-Archives-Salt: 1bcfed74-017e-4d4a-bf69-7733da87d9bc X-Archives-Hash: 0d2fd93ae3322ca03d92e90f18446025 On 2010.06.16 23:33, Sebastian Pipping wrote: > Roy, >=20 >=20 > On 06/16/10 21:40, Roy Bamford wrote: > > As a native English speaker (from England) I view Jers reply as > terse=20 > > and to the point, completely lacking in tone. >=20 > interesting. Looking at the sentence >=20 > "When did you point this out to devrel?" >=20 > I would like to say that while it's not impolite per se it's > implicitly > saying "You _have to_ point this out to dev rel" in my ears. A more > or > less word-by-word translation to German ("Wann hast du das gegen=FCber > DevRel angesprochen?") would make perfect sense and carry the same > problem so I assume it's not an English language thing. In contrast > asking >=20 > "Have you pointed this out to DevRel? What was their reaction?" >=20 > does not seem to have this mis-hearing problem, at least not to me. > Hmm - thats interesting, I subconsciously read the two questions into=20 the one posted. I accept you point. Its something I am likely to write=20 myself without thinking about it too much too. =20 >=20 > I remember a guy of the German Unix User Group (GUUG) saying=20 > something > like >=20 > "Communication is always oriented at the receiver". >=20 Communication is a two way process. On other more immediate media, that's reinforced as the "receiver" often asks questions to=20 clarify the intent of the communication. That does not seem to happen=20 as much in email so misunderstandings are more frequent and more=20 damaging as they take longer to resolve. > Applying that to tone and avoiding mis-interpretation the sender has > the > power (and arguably the responsiblity) to sounds as friendly as=20 > needed > to be sure it will not be understood as unfriendly. In a way there's > always a way to be friendlier - _without_ faking anything. > Hmm - its quite possible to give offence without intending to. The=20 receiver also has the power and responsibility to clarify the intent of=20 the communication before concluding that it was intended in any=20 particular manner.=20 > Best, >=20 >=20 >=20 > Sebastian >=20 >=20 >=20 --=20 Regards, Roy Bamford (Neddyseagoon) a member of gentoo-ops forum-mods trustees