atw: Re: National Broadband Network and empathy
- From: "Geoffrey Marnell" <geoffrey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:52:15 +1000
Howard,
No posting on any internet forum is likely to be considered interesting by
every member. I'm sure that, like me, you unemotionally delete postings to
austechwriter about, say, Madcap Blaze or Simplified Englishes because, at
that moment, they are of no interest to you. You, we, don't get hot under
the collar about them. So why get hot under the collar about, say, the NBN
thread? You cite the lack of relevance of some postings. A case could be put
that some recent postings, including some of mine, have not been directly
relevant to the posting that set this thread off. But why can't postings be
indirectly relevant? You agree that the initial posting-about the value of
the NBN-was directly relevant. But surely how the NBN is or should be
funded-by private or public funds-is still relevant to the discussion, for
it may ultimately determine whether the NBN goes ahead. If the NBN is
valuable to our profession, as the initial poster claimed, then it's
premature death can hardly be viewed as irrelevant to our profession.
Indeed, as the thread became more and more general, it did, to my mind,
become more and more relevant to our profession and to many others. That
sounds paradoxical, until you reflect on the fact that a large chunk of what
we do as technical writers stems directly from the regulatory intervention
of governments. Water that down, or eliminate it entirely, and you will see
our profession shrink (and that's not even bringing the morality of end-user
abandonment into it). So those who want to minimise government involvement
in the economic life of society are stating views that are certainly
relevant to our profession. Hence austechwriter is a relevant list for
arguments of the kind we have just had.
Yes, I agree that if someone posted an initial message to the list asking,
say, what is the best fertilizer to use for growing begonias, I would be
surprised and would probably feel like asking the poster to look elsewhere
for advice. But when the postings are related, even indirectly, to a
directly relevant posting, surely it's being a little curmudgeonly to ask
the posters to desist. Treat these postings as you would those about Blaze
and Simplified Englishes: let them pass unread. But some on this list
obviously found the offending thread interesting enough to want to
contribute. The debate (or "debate" as you call it) might not always have
been of the best quality, but the issues are undeniably important: for our
profession and for life in general.
And as they say about good conversation: is starts with A and ends with Z. A
little divagation here and there keeps us sane.
Cheers
Geoffrey Marnell
Principal Consultant
Abelard Consulting Pty Ltd
T: +61 3 9596 3456
F: +61 3 9596 3625
W: <http://www.abelard.com.au/> www.abelard.com.au
Skype: geoffrey.marnell
_____
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Howard Silcock
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 12:59 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: National Broadband Network and empathy
From Peter's post:
> I am on three newsgroups and all three have this broadband stuff.
> At least 50 emails today. Poles apart as group but same arguments.
> Delete delete delete delete.
>
Yep, that's all you have to do if you find a good old political argument
boring.
As long as you remember that the reason we have freedom of speech is so that
people can express different opinions without being censored, and don't want
to carry on about people exercising their rights to participate in argument
about issues they regard as important.
I'm all for people's rights to express their opinions but surely you don't
mean to imply that this list is open to anyone to debate anything?
This thread started off as a discussion of a topic of some relevance to the
tech writing community: the NBN. But it has devolved into a 'debate' that no
longer has much relevance and I think is degrading the list's standing
appallingly.
I'd invite potential posters to keep in mind the statement that is intended
to sum up what this list's about:
This list is a forum for technical writers to discuss the theory and
practice of technical communication. The forum will become an archive of
useful tips and solutions regarding workflow queries, software usage,
project planning, documentation standards...indeed anything of relevance to
the profession of technical authoring.
Yes, we do stray off topic sometimes, and I'm guilty of this too, but I
don't think we can assume that because anyone can hit the Delete key it
doesn't matter if the list members get bombarded with emails that are little
better than rantings.
Howard
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