Subject: Re: bug#61325: 30.0.50; Jokes in GNUS manual

From: Po Lu <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 20:50:31 +0800

Ihor Radchenko <[email-masked]> writes:

> Please, do not use appeal to ridicule.

But that's the point.

Most people will find ridiculous that the following paragraph:

   Other people use ``kill files'', but we here at Gnus Towers like
   scoring better than killing, so we’d rather switch than fight.  They
   do something completely different as well, so sit up straight and pay
   attention!

makes the subsequent four paragraphs describing score files less clear:

     All articles have a default score (`gnus-summary-default-score'),
  which is 0 by default.  This score may be raised or lowered either
  interactively or by score files.  Articles that have a score lower
  than `gnus-summary-mark-below' are marked as read.

     Gnus will read any ``score files'' that apply to the current group
  before generating the summary buffer.

     There are several commands in the summary buffer that insert score
  entries based on the current article.  You can, for instance, ask Gnus
  to lower or increase the score of all articles with a certain subject.

     There are two sorts of scoring entries: Permanent and temporary.
  Temporary score entries are self-expiring entries.  Any entries that
  are temporary and have not been used for, say, a week, will be removed
  silently to help keep the sizes of the score files down.

similarly, most people will also agree that being written in English
does not prevent them from understanding Emacs documentation.

If you glance at the first paragraph, and decide to stop reading after
that, it is not a problem with the Gnus manual.  It is a reading
comprehension problem on your part.

If you really find that the first paragraph impairs the clarity of the
next four, contextually independent, paragraphs, then you are part of a
very small demographic.

Several months ago, someone came up with the idea to delete all
amusements from Emacs, and move them to ELPA (or something along those
lines.)

Asking us to delete every joke that someone finds confusing is not far
from those lines, and is in fact a very slippery slope leading directly
to that proposal.