Opinions on DConf talks

Brad Anderson eco at gnuk.net
Tue Jun 25 18:07:56 PDT 2013


On Wednesday, 26 June 2013 at 00:40:48 UTC, Manu wrote:
> On 26 June 2013 10:15, H. S. Teoh <hsteoh at quickfur.ath.cx> 
> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 09:58:59AM +1000, Manu wrote:
>> > On 26 June 2013 08:16, Jonathan M Davis 
>> > <jmdavisProg at gmx.com> wrote:
>> [...]
>> > > I was very surprised by how many valuable discussions and
>> > > interactions took place outside of the talks. I don't 
>> > > think that
>> > > that value can be overestimated. For instance, I suspect 
>> > > that almost
>> > > all of us view Manu somewhat differently from having 
>> > > interacted with
>> > > him in person. He's still somewhat abrasive in person but 
>> > > nothing
>> > > like he is online. You get a very different view of 
>> > > someone from
>> > > interacting with them in person, and I found that many 
>> > > discussions
>> > > were far more effective when we had the opportunity to 
>> > > discuss stuff
>> > > in person informally rather than in the newsgroup (as 
>> > > valuable as
>> > > discussions here can be).
>> > >
>> >
>> > Brutal! ;)
>>
>> Heh... I must say, watching Manu's talks gave the necessary 
>> context to
>> interpret his online writing style, which are actually *not* 
>> abrasive as
>> some might construe them to be. It's a case of "lost in 
>> transit": online
>> text is notoriously bad at conveying the author's emotions and 
>> tone of
>> voice (that is to say, not at all), so an offhand joke or 
>> casual remark
>> can be wrongly taken to be a personal attack when there is no 
>> such
>> intention on the part of the author. Getting to know a person 
>> (in person
>> :-P) makes a big difference in how you interpret what he 
>> writes.
>>
>
> Haha, well I'm glad to hear that!
> I think it's safe to say that my generally blunt and perhaps 
> somewhat
> northern-australian inflammatory sense of humor just doesn't 
> translate to
> text.
> I've also never involved myself in any online community before, 
> and just
> write basically how I talk. Believe it or not, I'm actually a 
> friendly guy!
> ...or at least, I like to think so... ;)

Don't worry. Those of us in the #d IRC channel knew you were a 
friendly guy :P. This is why I'm surprised people are talking 
about you like you are aggressive or abrasive rather than just 
passionate about subjects you know a lot about.  Real time 
interaction, even through text, can do wonders for getting to 
know someone's tone.


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