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

From: Ihor Radchenko <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2023 11:24:53 +0000

Po Lu <[email-masked]> writes:

>> 3.15 Exiting Gnus has
>>
>> ...
>> 3.16 Group Topics
>> ...
>
> I think this joke is fairly obvious for anyone who has tried to browse a
> public news server.

May you please elaborate which joke you are referring to?

>> 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?
>
> Gnus is a news reader.  Naturally, the indended audience of the jokes in
> its manual are those who read net news.  Since you don't know what a
> kill or a (Gnus-specific) score file is, you can disregard that
> paragraph.

Agree. My other points remain. In particular, about joking on sex topic,
which is present in the same paragraph.

> The internet is for adults, not silly folk who cry about everything they
> don't understand.

I do not mind not understanding. But I do prefer to have manuals written
in such a way that I can at least distinguish jokes from the technical
information I actually need to use GNUS. I admit that the paragraph
about "kill files" is clearly distinguishable as a joke. Not so much for
3.16 Group Topics where jokes and non-jokes are rather mixed.

Also, note that Gnus is also email client. Are people who intend to use
GNUS for email supposed to understand Newsgroup terminology in order to
use GNUS?

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>