On 7/25/20 12:24 PM, Salz, Rich wrote:
Paul,
Thanks for the info and the history lesson.
I will learn how to spell “Colleagues” :)
Of course "colleague" has it's own problems - it implies that one assumes that all of one's addressees have opinions of equal worth. For some, that's an _expression_ of respect. For others, it's kowtowing to Dunning-Kruger syndrome. And some might take "Dear Colleague" as a sarcastic insult.
You really can't win with this stuff. Someone will always object to something. Personally, I'm still good with old-fashioned knock-down, drag-out, technical exchange - the hell with the language & people's feelings. Good engineering is good engineering, bad engineering is bad engineering. All the rest is navel-gazing.
On Sun, Jul 26, 2020, at 02:33, Miles Fidelman wrote:
We can't even use "bipeds" because it's insulting to people who have lost a leg or are otherwise incapable of bipedal motor function. (reminds me of the joke about the hick loudly asserting that he ain't no homosapien, he's a hetrosapien)
"Dear bikeshedders,"
Thankfully, words like "folks" or "colleagues" are rarely going to make their way into RFC text itself, because there's almost always a more specific class of person or entity that will be referenced by their role in any protocol or interaction that the RFC describes.
Bron.
--
Bron Gondwana, CEO, Fastmail Pty Ltd
brong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
