Re: Goodbye TECHWR-L

["etymes -at- lts -dot- com" <etymes -at- lts -dot- com>]

Folks:

My, aren't we neurotic!  Somebody up and quits our game and takes his 
marbles with him, and fires some sour comments about how we caused his 
unhappiness, and now everybody's up in arms about how the game won't be 
fun any more.  Oh, grow up!

Most people hereabouts knew that I disagreed with Andrew Plato's 
comments a lot of the time. What many may not have realized is that I 
agreed with him some, too -- I just didn't bother to post anything 
unless I had something worth while to add.  I vehemently disagreed with 
his hyperbole and his nasty cracks about people in our business - the 
latest one being this:

I have
been managing writers for almost 7 years now. I have found that approximately 1
in 20 people are competent, capable, responsible, and honest. 12 of 20 are just
slugs who will do the absolute bare minimum amount of work to get paid. And
about 2 in 20 are liars, thieves, and con-artists who will rip you off, ruin
your reputation, and then turn around and blame you for their inadequacies.

I have objected - mostly offline - to his tendency to incite nasty 
discussions and then not take responsibility for the effects on this 
discussion group.  While I grant that now and then he had some useful 
technical things to offer, they were too often clouded by the 
antagonistic rhetoric in which they were couched.  

I have no problem with disagreements - even animated ones - in this 
group.  I object when they get personal, or when they're unsubstantiated 
generalities, since neither adds to the education of anyone here. 
However there's a big difference between taking responsibility for 
something and assessing blame.  And what's been going on since Andrew 
left has largely been finding people to blame.  To my mind, that doesn't 
make the game enjoyable, that just makes more people take their marbles 
and leave.  

When I joined this list, I assumed it was largely comprised of people 
who treated each other with respect and that the questions and answers 
would largely be related to issues that were of professional interest to 
technical writers.  For a long while, they were.  Then things changed, 
and what disappeared fastest was the sense of respect in some of the 
postings.  And frankly, Andrew was guilty of that, and not the only one. 
And now he's found he'd rather play a new game, one that only 
marginally involves technical writers.  That doesn't make this game, or 
the players who want to play it, wrong or bad.  People change and move on.  

So let's get back to what our game is really about: technical writing.

Btw - to answer the criticism that, as one who disagreed with Andrew, I 
never financially supported this list, ask Eric.  We've never 
*advertised* because we have nothing we sell to a technical writing 
audience.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems




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