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Re: Choices or language and tone

Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com> Wed, 03 July 2019 23:57 UTC

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Subject: Re: Choices or language and tone
To: Richard Barnes <rlb@ipv.sx>
Cc: John C Klensin <john-ietf@jck.com>, IETF <ietf@ietf.org>
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From: Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <096c6eea-2996-029b-85e9-cd70437aae46@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2019 11:57:40 +1200
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On 04-Jul-19 07:54, Richard Barnes wrote:
...
> Getting people people stop and think about whether they're being unprofessional is like the whole point of having a code of conduct and enforcing it.  The clearer we make our norms, the easier the decision will be for the would-be contributor.

We could spend a great deal of time arguing about what the word "unprofessional" means in email to a group of professional colleagues. But I doubt if it would help, because at best we'd end up with a set of adjectives that have at least as much vagueness built into them as "unprofessional".

Personally, I don't find it unprofessional to characterise a decision or action of a committee as "a stupidity". Certainly it's stronger than "a mistake", but it's not a personal attack. It's stating what sort of a mistake the writer believes has happened.

(However, I just searched my personal mail archives for the string "stupid" and it's very rare, and mainly used in contexts like "I have a stupid question.")

   Brian

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