how did you get into my computer?

[Karsten Wade]

On Mon, 2007-08-13 at 14:46 -0500, Arthur Pemberton wrote:
> Listen. I know I am not a proper participant on this list, neither am
> I much of a people person. But there are only two scenarios with this
> email.
> 
> 1. the person is just playing around
> 2. the person lacks the most basic of comprehension skills
> 
> It seems to me that in neither case does the person deserve a
> response. I've read the test page, it is almost depressingly clear.

Or, 

3. The person didn't or couldn't read carefully
4. The person is technophobic
5. The words on the page do not make sense to a class of users who are
ignorant but not necessarily stupid

There are plenty of reasons why it can be an honest misunderstanding.
It is better to be polite and move on.  If you ever read the email
exchange between the CentOS guy and the City of Tuttle guy, both of them
could use politeness lessons, and the exchange reflected poorly on both
of them.

Taking the city manager for an example, it's doubtful that he is truly
stupid; it is more likely that a Web server test page never entered his
worldview, just like "free software" makes no sense to him.  Ignorance
is not stupidity.

- Karsten

-- 
        Karsten Wade              ^     Fedora Documentation Project 
 Sr. Developer Relations Mgr.     |  fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
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