This thread is not prompted by any particular recent events,
but rather something I have been thinking about now and then.
The reason is that I would suppose that people have different
opinions on what is polite, appropriate etc., since we are all
individuals, except Brian (warning, Monty Python reference).
Here I already gave an example. Some people, like me, find
it a good idea with an occasional joke or amusing ornament,
as long as it doesn't take over. I am sure there are others
people who think this is just off-topic and has nothing to do
on the forum.
If discussing with somebody on the forum that one isn't
already familiar with, the ways of addressing this person
differs. For instance, some people adress and refer to Nelson
Pass as Mr Pass or Nelson Pass, while others (most of us,
I think) adress him as Nelson. I have done so from the start,
although it would be ridiculous to think of myself as his peer in
questions related to audio (or wine
). I am sure Nelson
don't mind and rather prefer this, although others may perhaps
find it rude to be addressed by their first name from people
they are not familiar with. The reason I do it this way is that
I am used to this from the academic world where, at least in
computer science, it is common at conferences etc. to adress
each other with first name. It is foremost an american practice,
and some europeans are not quite comfortable with it, but most
of us like this informal style, where it is mostly okay for a fresh
graduate student to approach a well-known authority
addressing him by first name rather than Professor last name.
I do think it varies with discipline, though, and the CS community
is probably one of the most informal.
Although, I have a tendency to write lengthy posts (already
an unecessary comment if you have read this far) I do use a
brief style in the sense that I do not "sign" my posts, like some
do, but have a fixed sig with my user ID. Likewise, if replying to
a post, quoting from it, I usually do not start by adressing the
person, since this persons ID is already included at the beginning
of the quotation. I am sure some people find this unpolite. A
related case is email communication. We who work in computer
science have been used to communicate by email for over twenty
years, often having very interactive discussions this way, why
we tend to keep things brief and informal to speed up the
communication and since we think of it more as a spoken dialogue
than a written letter communication. I have noted, however, that
in email communication with people who have not been used
to communicate by email until it became widely available, these
people often have a tendency to be very formal, like a written
letter, and I often get a feeling some of them find me very
unpolite when answering in my usual brief style that I am used
to.
So why did I write this? Well, as I said, I am sure different
individuals on the forum have different opinions on the
appropriate balance between briefness and politeness,
between formality and informatlity etc. Here I explained my
view, or rather why I do as I do, and I would think that most
forum members have a similar view. I am just as sure that some
don't, so this thread is meant to ventilate different views and
opinions so we understand each other better, and realize that
somebody perhaps isn't as rude/formal as we thought.
Some reflections on politeness vs. briefness
