[wp-forums] Re: wp-forums "Tone"

[Yosemite]

wp-forums-request at lists.automattic.com wrote:
> Subject:
> RE: [wp-forums] Tone
> From:
> "Melanie" <melanie at itcouldbenothing.com>
> Date:
> Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:25:14 -0400
> To:
> <wp-forums at lists.automattic.com>
>
> To:
> <wp-forums at lists.automattic.com>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> what I see is a person who is trying to figure out something, asks a
> question, and the your response is pretty much, "ha ha - you're a total
> idiot." 
While I might not agree with that, per se, I do identify with your 
experience and observations (although mine might be more dated).

 From my experiences, 40+% of all the complaints/issues usually involve 
either moshu or whoami. Another 20% seem to involve the same 5 to 10 
people (me included?) and the rest are the same ol' communication 
problems you find in any forum.

Moshu has some legitimate language issues (esl) and when challenged will 
acknowledge and make an effort to say 'not intended'.  Whoami doesn't 
seem to make any such excuse nor take refuge in 'communication errors'.  
Whatever her reasons, she seems pretty confident that this is the 
appropriate tone/language, to use. I disagree, primarily because it 
turns the forum into an adversarial situation (re: BOFH --> 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOFH). When confronted, whoami typically 
will respond in a way that ratchets up the tension (unlike moshu) and I 
don't see any positive results to this.

This behavior is very much like the school-yard bully that we later (in 
life) learn is attributable to a fear disorder, and it is entirely 
antithetical to a 'support' environment. In short; Understandable, but 
not acceptable.

But I have no control over any of this, I can only control myself (most 
of the time?) so I too made the only decision I do have control over: I 
avoid the support forums.

-- 
-Sam Devol
samdevol.com
We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming. - 
Wernher von Braun