Subject: 30.0.50; Jokes in GNUS manual

From: Ihor Radchenko <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2023 16:01:50 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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)

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?

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