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

From: Ihor Radchenko <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2023 14:37:32 +0000

Richard Stallman <[email-masked]> writes:

>   > > 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 can't see what in this a reader might consider insulting.

Upon checking again with the person who initially reported the issue
with this particular note, I found that the part about insulting was
rather theoretical. The argument was that someone who had bad
experiences with bullying might feel insulted.

I now find such argument insufficient to call the note insulting.

It is not the only problem with this note though.

> I can't see what in this a reader might consider funny.
> I can't make sense of it at all.

I had the same feeling upon reading section 3.15.

Now, when it was pointed that this is supposed to be a joke, I can see
that it is trying to play around the concept of "suspend".

> We owe no special consideration to people who try to impose their
> unrelated hgypersensitivities on others.  They are demanding power
> which nobody should have.

I can see the point, but does it apply to well-known sensitive topics,
like sex, races, politics, etc? If such a topic must be mentioned as a
part of technical description, I see no problem with mentioning such
topics out of necessity. However, jokes in the manual are supposed to
either raise positive feelings or at least be neutral. If we know in
advance that a significant number of people will be annoyed by certain
kinds of jokes, are such jokes worth it?

> However, jokes that make people feel mocked _because they use Gnus_
> are unfriendly to our users.  We should remove those.

May you elaborate? Reading the manual is a part of using Gnus. Or do you
mean that statements deliberately attacking/mocking people who use Gnus
(or certain parts/functions in Gnus) should be avoided?

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
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