[erlang-questions] Announcing Erlang.org Code of Conduct

[Joe Armstrong]

My Mother, was brought up by her Grandmother, this was because her
Mother died of the Spanish Flu when she was little.

My Gradmother swore by Lady Hartley's "Ladies book of Etiquette and
Manual of Politness" (1875) and my Mother often used to quote from it
at length when I was a child.

Lady Hartley's rules occupied 356 pages - and there is no way they
could be summarized as "be nice."

Thanks to the amazing advances in technology the entire text of
Lady Hartleys' text can be perused on-line at
https://archive.org/details/ladiesbookofetiq00hartrich

She didn't actually mention email in her book, but there is a chapter
on letter writing (which is the nearest we'll get)

Chapter XV starts:

    LETTER WRITING

    THERE is no branch of education called so universally into
    requisition as the art of letter writing ; no station, high or
    low, where the necessity for correspondence is not felt ; no
    person, young or old, who does not, at some time, write, cause to
    be written, and receive letters.  From the President in his
    official capacity, with the busy pens of secretaries constantly
    employed in this branch of service, to the Irish laborer who,
    unable to guide a pen, writes, also by proxy, to his kinsfolks
    across the wide ocean ; all, at some time, feel the desire to
    transmit some message, word of love, business, or sometimes
    enmity, by letter.

and gushes on for 26 pages - great stuff - well worth including as an
appendix to our rules.

                                 ---


As for being nice ...

Do I really have to be nice? - some of the best stuff I've read wasn't
nice - Caitlin Moran's books would not have made it to the best seller
lists and reduced me to tears of laughter if she'd been nice. Cut out
the non-nice bits and swear words and there would be very little left.

Miss Jones in my little school days said "never ever *ever* use the
word nice." it shows a lack of imagination.  Don't say it's "nice
weather" say it's "pleasant weather" or some. Don't say "that's nice"
say "that's interesting"

As for not swearing - the odd frog, badger or reference to a furry
animal in the text can hardly be wrong. It would be helpful to have a
list of forbidden words here ...

                             ----

My Father had views on etiquette: His only advince on the matter
was "always tip your hat to a lady"

Sorry about the top post.

/Joe



On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 9:47 AM, Roger Price
<erlang-questions@REDACTED> wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Mar 2015, Richard A. O'Keefe wrote:
>
>> It would be gracious to include a link to the venerable Emily Postnews?
>> http://www.templetons.com/brad/emily.html
>
>
> And also to Eric Raymond on "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way"
> http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
> Roger
>
> _______________________________________________
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