Re: [tlug] Post my article on tlug.jp?: Who's view does it represent?

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 28/07/07, Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com> wrote:

> Sure, but are we putting it up on the TLUG website just to make him
> happy?

No. Those in the audience who know me might be snickering at the
thought that I'd ever do something just to make someone happy. ;)

> I was under the impression that part of the point of this piece of
> writing was to communicate with others. If you get a fair number of
> people coming to you and saying it's not doing that very well, that's
> pretty darn objective evidence that it's not so well suited to that
> purpose.

Except that Dr. Turnbull (evoking the title here because this issue is
at least tangentially one of economics) and I both said, and I nearly
quote: "it is a good article". The Good (the Bad, and the Ugly, all
rolled into one) Doctor went on to say that it is 30% too long, to
which Dave replied, "I'm happy with the length", and Steve said no
more. Which is kind of a model for how I think the whole exchange with
TLUG should have gone.

I mention this to point out two published authors that considered
Dave's article not just good enough, but good, and worth reading. So
the evidence is not as conclusive as the picture you have painted
above.

I am not saying that Steve and I are better writers than the rest of
the TLUG members; I am simply saying that we are probably at worst
just as good, since one of us writes an awful lot for a living, and
the other just writes a lot to here himself talk. ;) (Five points to
the first person to identify which is which in the above description.)

And perhaps I am misrepresenting Steve's opinion, in which case he
will certainly correct me, and hopefully accept my apology thereafter.

> If the purpose of the paper is solely to please the author, I really
> don't see why he would be asking for it to be published.

It is not.

The purpose is to expose TLUG to a little more publicity in geeky
circles, and hopefully to encourage others (Erin, ah'm lookin' at yew,
Bruwther) to write high-quality articles for the TLUG website as well.

There is a lot of knowledge in TLUG; I want to unlock that and share
it with the world.

> > Would you like it if I "helped" you with your code, ad nauseum, after
> > you already told me you were happy with it?
>
> If the purpose of my code were to clearly communicate a concept to you,
> I would be forced to accept your help. After all, you're a much better
> judge of what you understand than I am.

True. But again, I maintain that we are almost certainly not Dave's
"target audience", though I wish he'd simply come out and define that
nebulous concept so it is clear.

Articles that are "by TLUG" need not be "for TLUG". For example, I
would imagine that more "gaijin" than TLUGers read Scott and Mike's
excellent guides to using Japanese with Linux:

http://www.tlug.jp/docs.php

I think that this first article is painful simply because we have not
grown our milk teeth yet; the next one (Erin!!!) should go more
smoothly. Plus, for the next one, we will have an Editor in Chief and
a style guide, right? :)

-- 
Cheers,
Josh