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

From: Visuwesh <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 19:12:26 +0530

[திங்கள் பிப்ரவரி 06, 2023] Ihor Radchenko wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I was just pointed to 3.15 Exiting Gnus, 3.16 Group Topics, and 8
> Scoring sections of GNUS manual. Apparently, at least some users find
> the style of these sections insulting.
>
> While I do not object jokes per se, I do note that for a person outside
> USA context or, sometimes, for a person inside USA context, jokes in the
> listed section are simply distracting from understanding the described
> topic.

As a non-native speaker who also read the Gnus manual (except Searching
and the rest), my general sentiment is that it is hard to read it
because of its writing style but I don't agree that every joke hindered
my understanding.
I find it hard to skim through the manual later when I read it like
"regular documentation" due to its writing style so I would be happy to
see a rewrite that tones down the jokes but so far the Info indices have
served me well enough, and Gnus runs smoothly (for me) after the initial
setup anyway so it is not a bother.

> 3.15 Exiting Gnus has
>
>    Note:
>
>      Miss Lisa Cannifax, while sitting in English class, felt her feet
>      go numbly heavy and herself fall into a hazy trance as the boy
>      sitting behind her drew repeated lines with his pencil across the
>      back of her plastic chair.
>
> I am not sure if it is a joke. I only feel confused about what
> information this note is trying to convey. Also, at least one other user
> find this section insulting.

I am not sure what this person finds insulting.  I am not sure if you
referred to this when you wrote "female bullying" in another thread, but
what I visualise when I read this is much more innocent and does not
have anything offensive.  OTOH, I do agree this paragraph sticks out and
seemingly serves no useful info.

> Further, the last sentence in
>
> ‘z’
>      Suspend Gnus (‘gnus-group-suspend’).  This doesn’t really exit
>      Gnus, but it kills all buffers except the Group buffer.  I’m not
>      sure why this is a gain, but then who am I to judge?
>
> is implying what? Is it just a joke? Or is it saying that the function
> is useless? Discouraged? I am confused.

This is yet another dry Gnus humour in my book.

> 3.16 Group Topics
>
>     If you read lots and lots of groups, it might be convenient to group
>     them hierarchically according to topics.  You put your Emacs groups over
>     here, your sex groups over there, and the rest (what, two groups or so?)
>     you put in some misc section that you never bother with anyway.  You can
>     even group the Emacs sex groups as a sub-topic to either the Emacs
>     groups or the sex groups—or both!  Go wild!
>
> Forgetting about trying to joke around the word sex (the topic, often
> negatively received by, at least, some Muslim users), I simply feel
> disoriented while trying to read this paragraph. I can understand the
> first sentence. Is the rest of the paragraph a joke? Or are there useful
> pieces of information coded inside?
>
> After reading this info section, I feel that the amount of attempted
> jokes is larger than the amount of useful information. This is
> distracting (even though I do not mind an occasional joke, personally)

If you replace "sex group" with a language group e.g. "Spanish", does
the paragraph make more sense?  I personally saw the use of "sex group"
as a jab at those who participate in "online sex groups" but I may be
group of course.

> 8 Scoring has
>
>     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!
>
> For me, this paragraph is meaningless. For US users, it is some kind of
> word play around sexual behavior, I guess. At least some users find "we
> .. like scoring better than killing" uncomfortable. I object jokes that
> make people feel uncomfortable.
>
> Also, I fail to understand what "kill files" really refers to here. Also
> some USA-specific context? Or is it Emacs killing concept? Deleting
> files on file system?

Even without any knowledge about news readers (I was not even born back
then!), I could tell that "kill files" were a way to filter your feed
from the context.  Especially since Emacs already uses the word "kill"
to mean what other applications call "cut" (kill-region) and "delete"
(kill-buffer).  I don't really see a cause for confusion here TBH.