Although the polite version is semantically identical the syntax of the message in many cases as important as the message itself.
Much of what makes human communication universally intelligible across cultures and languages like tone of voice or body language is lost in writing and the human tendency is to replace it with similar substitutes as it helps to convey meta-information that would be hard to convey otherwise.
I believe if one would analyze every single email sent by Linux to the list the great majority of them would have similar syntax to the polite English above but, of course, those wouldn't make the news.
The bitter rants seem to be reserved to the cases where it is imperative that everybody, involved or not, understand very clearly why that behaviour is not tolerable and the reason for that. Similar cases like the refusal to merge Kay Sievers further submissions [1] until he cleaned up and owned up to his mistakes or the reprieve of a maintainer [2] that broke userland with a kernel commit seems to follow the same pattern.
The difference to a professional setting is that, in person in a company, one can always call a closed doors meeting and express with tone of voice and body language the same message without the public spectacle.
Even in those cases, specially when everybody knows what it mean to be called to the boss presence, it can be as embarrassing and intimidating as what happens in those forums.
Offense is taken not given. While Linus can be exceedingly colourful at times I for one don't find it offensive. Moreover you, and I, can't fathom the amount of times he probably had in depth discussions on various kernel topics, by now he probably knows that sometimes being abrasive is the only way to get message across.
Yep, there's definitely a different message that comes across. Mostly one about how Linus Torvalds can abuse anyone he damn well feels like without repercussion.
Comments
Original ML mail: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1510.3/02866.html
Someone rewrote the rant in polite English: http://catcode.com/comments/2015/cf20151101.html
Although the polite version is semantically identical the syntax of the message in many cases as important as the message itself.
Much of what makes human communication universally intelligible across cultures and languages like tone of voice or body language is lost in writing and the human tendency is to replace it with similar substitutes as it helps to convey meta-information that would be hard to convey otherwise.
I believe if one would analyze every single email sent by Linux to the list the great majority of them would have similar syntax to the polite English above but, of course, those wouldn't make the news.
The bitter rants seem to be reserved to the cases where it is imperative that everybody, involved or not, understand very clearly why that behaviour is not tolerable and the reason for that. Similar cases like the refusal to merge Kay Sievers further submissions [1] until he cleaned up and owned up to his mistakes or the reprieve of a maintainer [2] that broke userland with a kernel commit seems to follow the same pattern.
The difference to a professional setting is that, in person in a company, one can always call a closed doors meeting and express with tone of voice and body language the same message without the public spectacle.
Even in those cases, specially when everybody knows what it mean to be called to the boss presence, it can be as embarrassing and intimidating as what happens in those forums.
[1] http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1404.0/01331.html
[2] https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/23/75
At some point, will we stop making excuses for this guy? Because the rest of us manage to communicate without constantly offending.
Offense is taken not given. While Linus can be exceedingly colourful at times I for one don't find it offensive. Moreover you, and I, can't fathom the amount of times he probably had in depth discussions on various kernel topics, by now he probably knows that sometimes being abrasive is the only way to get message across.
Exactly. Relevant SBMC comic:
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2164
Yep, there's definitely a different message that comes across. Mostly one about how Linus Torvalds can abuse anyone he damn well feels like without repercussion.
It's like the reverse of Lester, Obama's anger management translator.