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Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 17:27:04 -0400
From: "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>
To: Sarah Sharp <sarah.a.sharp@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Olivier Galibert <galibert@pobox.com>, David Lang <david@lang.hm>,
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Subject: Re: [Ksummit-2013-discuss] [ATTEND] How to act on LKML (was: [
 00/19] 3.10.1-stable review)
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On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 02:12:35PM -0700, Sarah Sharp wrote:
> "Your code is crap" is considered unprofessional, while
> > "Let's leverage my fifth grade nephew's capabilities to assist you in
> > fixing the code" is perfectly professional, somehow.  That's more
> > often than not an unacceptable attitude in europe.
> 
> I *hate* both direct personal insults and indirect personal insults.
> Neither should be acceptable in our community.

What is a "direct personal insult" can be in the eye of the beholder.
Personally, I don't consider "your code is crap" as a personal insult.
"You are an incompetent programmer for producing this crap" would be a
personal attack.

Similarly, there is a difference between "That was an idiotic idea"
and "You are an idiot".

Now, there are certainly more {diplomatic, politically correct,
choose-your-own-favorite-adjective} ways wording the description of a
particularly bad idea or piece of code.  But is that a "personal
attack"?

Keep in mind that there are some cultures where even pointing out a
technical flaw in code might considered bringing deep shame on the
engineer and their company.  So how sensitive people are to criticism
during an electronic exchange is always going to be highly culutrally
and personally variable.

   	  	      	     		- Ted
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