Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Stroller <stroller@××××××××××××××××××.uk>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Digest of gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org issue 1422 (76278-76327)
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:20:44
Message-Id: 4ABD5A80-50FB-43A0-965E-7E0A7D66241C@stellar.eclipse.co.uk
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Digest of gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org issue 1422 (76278-76327) by Etaoin Shrdlu
1 On 3 Mar 2008, at 09:57, Etaoin Shrdlu wrote:
2
3 > On Monday 3 March 2008, Jan Seeger wrote:
4 >
5 >> NOTE: I don't speak spanish. But somehow, I read it thusly:
6 >> On Mon, 03. Mar, mvidela@××××××××.ar spammed my inbox with
7 >>
8 >>> todos los temas relacionados con soporte técnico
9 >>
10 >> all technical support requests (relations?)
11 >
12 > all technical support-related issues
13 >
14 > Ok, not that it changes much... :-)
15
16 Noooo! It changes EVERYTHING!!
17
18 "Issue" is word to describe an individual periodical in a series of
19 publications, and is a weasel-word when it's used as a synonym for
20 "problem".
21
22 Clearly if your computer isn't booting it's a PROBLEM, not merely an
23 "issue", so we can tell that the author of the email is engaged in
24 the sort of environment where weasel-words are employed.
25
26 I have dealt with such technical support departments in the past - I
27 knew of one at which the management insisted that staff were not
28 allowed to describe a dead PC as a problem because that "sounds too
29 downbeat". Such scenarios were to be passed off to the customer as
30 merely "an issue" ("however seriously we're addressing your issue,
31 sir"), rather than the disaster it actually was.
32
33 </pet peeve>
34
35 Stroller.--
36 gentoo-user@l.g.o mailing list

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