The childishness of public killfiling. (Was: OK ITS OFFICIAL I AM THINKING ABOUT REMOVING ANYTHING TO DO WITH UBUNTU AND JUST GOING WITH DEBIAN)

[Michael T. Richter]

On Sat, 2006-26-08 at 12:06 +0300, Janne Jokitalo wrote:

> >>> is F*CK OFFENSIVE?!?!?!
> >>> IS IT?



> >> Of course it is.  So is shouting.
> >> <plonk>



> > While we're on the subject of what is and isn't offensive, I find it
> > offensive when people publicly announce the contents of their killfiles
> > as if it were a) some kind of act of public interest and/or b) some kind
> > of extreme punishment.



> Well, I find it so only when you do it with no additional explanation, at to
>  why you did it. Here Derek quite visibly mentioned the reason why he
> plonked. To be frank (who I'll hopefully never be), I can very much
> understand his reasoning.



> > Killfiles?  I support heartily.  (And, indeed, as I've offered before,
> > anybody who wants to drop me into their killfile may feel free to do so
> > at any time.  If they don't know how, I'll gladly provide instructions.)
> > Publishing your killfiles in whole or in dribs and drabs?  Is offensive.



> ...for you, perhaps. Just as using the f-word is offensive to some, but not
> others.



This is the answer to the question...


> > Can we get people banned for doing that please?



> You're pushing it, now. I haven't seen your statement concerning the use of
> the f-word, would you ban people for doing that?


...here.

My point is that yes, some people will find the use of the word in
question to be very offensive while others will consider it to be
punctuation.  (I've heard tell of a so-called "Brooklyn Alphabet":
f***ing-A, f***ing-B, etc.)  Others will be unoffended at the word in
question but will be offended by publicly publishing killfiles.  Still
others will have a problem with the word spelled out, but not with
asterisks used to replace key letters.  Yet others will be offended by
even oblique references to the word in question no matter how disguised.
And some people will get offended by people gratuitously using the word
"Auntie" in a sentence completely out of context with no link to
anything around it.

It is literally impossible to post to an international mailing list
without being offensive to someone, somewhere.  I can count at least a
half-dozen people on this list who are offended that I'm allowed to post
at all, for example.  :D  Still others will be offended by the
quotations I choose to put in my signature file.  Yet others will be
offended that I find public killfiles offensive.

It is not impossible, however, to check your own reactions to
"offensive" materials and, basically, grow a thicker skin -- to see the
intent behind the words instead of jerking knees to the words
themselves.

-- 
Michael T. Richter
Email: ttmrichter at gmail.com, mtr1966 at hotpop.com
MSN: ttmrichter at hotmail.com, mtr1966 at hotmail.com; YIM:
michael_richter_1966; AIM: YanJiahua1966; ICQ: 241960658; Jabber:
mtr1966 at jabber.cn

"I have never seen the poor people being so familiar with their heads of
state as they were with [Michele Duvalier]. It was a beautiful lesson
for me. I've learned something from it." --Mother Theresa
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