Dear J:
Suddenly there's a "rule" that we're "professional" and therefore we can't call
use any sobriquet we care to? Consider yourself chastised.
Then call yourself whatever you want to.
As I gather you've noticed, Ms C, as resident would-be moderator, keeps
inventing new rules, chief amongst which is the rule that if you disagree with
Ms C's pronunciamentoes, you are automatically rude and bullying (and probably
male).
Ignore this nonsense..
Pot and kettle stuff.
Sic semper tyrannis ...
And for good measure, I think you're right to be dubious about self-raising
training plans. Might work for flour.
P
Sent from TypeApp
On 2 Dec 2016, 12:16 AM, at 12:16 AM, Julia Williams <jjw@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Spare me the part where you bristle at my temerity and ask to see my
credentials. I noticed that you visited my LinkedIn page yourself some
time ago.
Regarding atw policy, I'm not "demanding" anything, I'm making a
suggestion. In my opinion, there is no harm in friendly, off-topic
conversation but hostility is off-putting, especially to newcomers who
have not yet become familiar with the personalities and norms of the
group. I doubt that I'm the only person to feel that way, but some
people disagree. Fair enough. I acknowledge that if I don't like it, I
can leave.
Regarding the training wiki ... I don't want to sound negative, but I
have to say that I'm not convinced that it would work. Yes, it can work
if it's a personal labour of love and you have continuity of care over
an extended period, but it's a very difficult call for a small amateur
organisation to maintain such a site (quite apart from the fact that
they've given no indication that they want to). And then, there is
already a vast richness of training resources - and sites where
resources can be posted and shared - available online. Wouldn't we just
be reinventing the wheel?
J
-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christine Kent
Sent: Thursday, 1 December 2016 9:10 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: ASTC AGM - post mortem - TOO AGGRESSIVE FOR THE FAINT
HEARTED
Well jjw, whoever you are, there are lots of professional attributes
that we should bring to a professional association.
The first is to identify ourselves by our real names. Perhaps you can
give us a link to your LinkedIn profile so we can learn something about
you - like your name?
The second is that we each add value in some way, some of the time,
depending on our current employment situation. We join the ASTC
committee, or we post interesting issues, problems or articles on this
forum, or we respond to the requests from others for help. Can you
point me to your professional contributions to either the ASTC or to
ATW? I don't recall any but I may have missed them. It is hard to
remember someone who signs themselves as "J".
Third, it is normal when you join a forum that you abide by the current
rules of the forum unless you become moderator and ask the group for
agreement to change the rules. The OT rule has worked for many years.
By what authority do you demand a change in a long standing cultural
agreement?
Four, given that the Write the Docs groups is fairly healthy on Slack,
Nick Shears started the AusTechWriter group there also to see if would
work better than the old fashioned mailing list. It has collapsed. You
will find it here. austechwriter.slack.com Perhaps you could revive
it, then you would get to make the rules.
Five, I have made a suggestion about compiling a training wiki suitable
for technical writers. As you currently do not appear to have a
professional commitment to the group perhaps you might like to take up
a position on the ASTC committee and take this on board as a project -
donate the equipment, manage the software interfaces, and act as a
librarian for the resources. You will find a good suggestion for a
resource on the austechwriter.slack.com wall.
No?
Love and light, Christine
(Someone told me today he loves my sense of humour. My god, someone who
gets me!)
-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of jjw@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, 1 December 2016 12:14 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: ASTC AGM - post mortem - TOO LONG FOR THE FAINT
HEARTED
Quoting Christine Kent <cmkentau@xxxxxxxxx>:
To see what mean about the behaviour of technical writers, take alook
at this blog post by Swapnil,–
https://icreatedocs.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/the-astc-is-failing-us/
. A communicative article. But then look at the comment. “Maybe we
should just all get together and argue about 9/11 and climate change
works for some tech writing communities :b”. The technical writer
personality in a nutshell. Bitchy. Point scoring. Spiteful.
The comment you object to is mine.
To provide context, I joined this list some years ago. Sometime last
year (?) there was a long discussion of climate change. A number of
people questioned whether it was an appropriate topic for the group,
and considered unsubscribing. I did unsubscribe.
To be clear, I don’t object to off-topic threads in general, but
partisan political discussions can quickly become rancorous and I don’t
feel that they help to create a welcoming, collaborative atmosphere. It
is certainly legitimate to raise contentious on-topic issues here (as
Ana has done recently), but there are many, many other venues for
off-topic political discussions, so suggesting that those be taken to a
different list is not unreasonable in my opinion.
Perhaps a useful guideline might be to restrict discussion to topics
that you would be comfortable raising in your workplace.
Recently I re-subscribed, and soon the topic of the truth (or
otherwise) of 9/11 was raised. This seemed to me to be another very
political topic that would generate hostility (and it did), so to
forestall this I – pleasantly I think – suggested that the conversation
could be taken to another list. Some people publicly agreed with me,
including Swapnil.
Your response to my suggestion was this patronising (and blatantly
passive-aggressive) put-down:
"Your response is petulant. As Petra has responded, take responsibility
yourself, and block her if you find her contributions unwelcome. Block
me while you are at it, and Peter Martin, and anyone else who dares to
treat this list as a friendship as well as a professional group."
For this reason, feeling a little exasperated, I posted this joking
comment at the end of my (longer) post on Swapnil’s blog. It was
intended to be a wry acknowledgement of our mutual opinion that the
topics of conversation on this list are not always appropriately
targeted, but that it is clearly not acceptable to say so.
You can call my closing comment "Bitchy. Point scoring. Spiteful" if
you choose. I don’t think it was, but to tar the “technical writer
personality” in general with the same brush is silly. I’m sorry that
you have encountered people who you found unpleasant, but that can
hardly be construed as a reflection on technical writers in general. I
find the technical writing community to be amazingly diverse, but in
twenty years I have never worked with a technical writer who I would
describe as "bitchy" or "spiteful". I would certainly think twice
before applying that description to someone I have never met and know
nothing about.
J
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