in reply to Question Your Opinions

ugh.. I've tried not to comment on any of merlyn related nodes flying aroud here lately in hope that they would just go away. For watever reason, I'll weigh in with my two bits.

merlyn does a great amount here and I think in general for the Perl community. I think the issue can be summed up in this line of code.. 

if ($merlyn->terse) {$vote--}

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Now the node in question yesterday was terse and could come across as condesending. I'd suspect it was more along the lines of how a teacher would word something to make a student think instead of just giving an answer.

I'd suspect that some people, after seeing a lot of terse posts come up with the idea that merlyn is a "heartless clod". You'd be hard pressed to find any one post that sums up your reasons though. Does someone have the right not to like him because of this? Sure. Should merlyn change? Of course not. He is who he is, and he's probably nothing like what those of us who don't know him personally think he's like.

So I don't think that the people who don't like merlyn are baseless, nor do I think that merlyn should try to change the way that he is.

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Re: Re: Question Your Opinions
by PsychoSpunk (Hermit) on May 02, 2001 at 02:39 UTC
    Dammit, dammit, dammit. Use a dictionary.com please.

    I've had this argument in the CB numerous times, and I want it to stop. Terse does not mean what you think it means. Quite simply it has been perverted into the vernacular to be synonomous with rude.

    Yes, this diatribe is useful, because your "code" is something that, when read by a person who knows what terse means, demonstrates the Personality Voting cause celebre that merlyn is annoyed with.

    Sorry, but I have to rant about this (especially when Guildenstern's post talks about how merlyn's terse answers are useful in helping you solve the problem).

    ALL HAIL BRAK!!!

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      And how do you know how I meant it? Are merlyns posts terse? Yes they are.. and I' not referring to any basterdized version of the term. I meant it EXACTLY as it's defined. When his posts lack any type of feel and are just short tidbits of factual information, people tend to downvote them. That's what happens, right or wrong. If someone doesn't like answers like that, they have every right to downvote the node. And merlyn has every right to post them.

      Please go and try to read someone elses mind...

      Rich

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        Well, there is always the if ($merlyn->terse) { $vote+=0; } option which would carry none of the negative connotation that I apparently read into your post.

        In other words, if you don't find a node helpful, but it's not a particularly bad node (i.e. it helps someone), then why does this seem to affect the node's strengths. I'm not saying that merlyn is a god, and your votes are yours to spend, but why vote on a node that you are otherwise indifferent to? Everybody has a personality, and I don't see why merlyn has to write messages like footpad. :)

        ALL HAIL BRAK!!!

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      I looked at the entry you link to above and personally i kinda like this item to sum up merlyn's posts 
      terse

Language for decryption of hardware logic.

["Hardware Logic Simulation by Compilation", C. Hansen, 25th ACM/IEEE 
+Design Automation Conf, 1988].

</silliness>

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