(j3.2006) A call for civility

[John Reid]

Dear all,

Although Damian's message was directed at J3, I have been corresponding 
privately with him because J3 and WG5 have worked closely together now 
for many years so a problem with J3 mail is a problem for WG5 too. He 
assures me that the experience he mentioned was with someone who was on 
the committee quite some years ago and no longer participates.

Nevertheless, thank you Damian, for reminding us of the dangers of 
email. There is no "unsend" button.

Best wishes,

John.


Damian Rouson wrote:
 > All,
 >
 > Please know that I direct this email at no one in particular but to 
the community as a whole.  In fact, there are other venues to which I 
would like to post this same message, but I care most about this one so 
I?m willing to be a brave any possible storm for the sake of the language.
 >
 > It can be a very daunting challenge for a newcomer or outsider to 
post to mailing lists where everyone on the list is an incredibly smart, 
experienced contributor if we have to fear a public response that might 
be perceived as diminishing our abilities.  I stopped posting to 
comp.lang.fortran years ago because of remarks from a very knowledgeable 
person whom I respect and from whom I believe I could learn a great deal 
were I able to dialogue with him in a productive way.  I felt insulted 
by his response and it greatly limited my interest in posting to that 
news group again.
 >
 > I often think of sending messages to this mailing list, but I 
hesitate every time and usually don?t for fear that I will be publicly 
disparaged as dumb if I happen to propose a dumb idea (or even smart 
idea that someone else thinks is dumb).  We all make mistakes, but we 
don?t all agree on which suggestions are mistaken or misguided or 
unhelpful in some way.  Given the high intellectual caliber of every 
person on this list, I hope we?ll find a way to communicate in a way 
that the other person feels respected.
 >
 > I?ve had enough conversations with other people to know that I am not 
the only person who has a great deal of experience with Fortran and who 
might be able to contribute more to this community if fears of an attack 
were not prohibiting me from doing so.
 >
 > Damian
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >
 > _______________________________________________
 > J3 mailing list
 > J3 at mailman.j3-fortran.org
 > http://mailman.j3-fortran.org/mailman/listinfo/j3
 >