How to install Precise without getting screwed?

[John Moser]

On 04/08/2012 11:14 PM, Dane Mutters wrote:
>
> John,
>
>
> So, while I'm, in fact, all /for /speaking bluntly, I also see the 
> quandary that speaking too bluntly produces when being "wrong" (for 
> the "owners" of a work) would mean that the months they spent on a 
> particular project would all be for nothing, should they admit that 
> they were actually wrong.

All things have a balance.  Direct personal attacks are less useful than 
attacks on a particular feature you don't like; attacks by proxy are 
also more useful than direct personal attacks ("I don't know what idiot 
came up with this..." that idiot is somewhere, but he's at least able to 
shuffle back into the crowd and hide...).  Directly grabbing the 
developer in question and giving them a severe public dressing down is 
just not constructive--let's ignore the issue and lob personal attacks 
instead now eh?  (Thorough dressings down are for the rare situation 
where the person in question is a severely destructive idiot--this 
doesn't happen much, aside from that one coworker we've all had that 
gets paid to creates problems for everyone else.)

Either way, getting *too* uncivil is a bad thing.  Strong language can 
be very useful in some forums; but in forums where it's strongly 
inappropriate you should pick your tone well enough to have the same 
effect.  Railing on something by proxy on a glancing blow may be 
overstepping the bounds of civility, or it might be a needed slap 
alongside the head for someone; continuing to ignore the feature itself 
and continuously use it purely as a proxy to insult someone is just 
malicious and useless.

We don't want to degenerate into a forum of continuous flame wars in any 
case; but the truth is the occasional burn serves to remind us that fire 
is hot and we should really pay attention to what we're doing.  While 
you don't want to burn your house down, you also really don't want to 
freeze to death.

That all said, let's keep it civil.  Or at least let's go for a farce.

>     Plus it's fun to read people speaking frankly, though if you spoke
>     like a Franc I guess you'd have to use a lot more accents and
>     apostrophes.
>
>
> Well said.  ;-)
>
If only brevity was my strong point.
> --Dane

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