in reply to Re: Question Your Opinions
in thread Question Your Opinions

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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Re: Re: Re: Question Your Opinions
by rchiav (Deacon) on May 02, 2001 at 03:24 UTC
    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

[reply]
      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!!!

[reply]
[d/l]
        I'm not saying that I personally vote this way. I've never actually downvoted one of merlyns nodes but I can see why someone would. It's not a matter of personality; it's a matter of perception. To say that someone doesn't have a legitimate reason to downvote a node is to say that your view of the node is the only one that's accurate. If someone reads one of his nodes and infers it as scaracstic and condicending, they might downvote it. Terse (brief, factual) comments often come across that way, especially in a textual context.

        And what really matters; what the author meant or what the reader infers?.

        Rich

[reply]
Re: Re: Re: Question Your Opinions
by Desdinova (Friar) on May 02, 2001 at 18:08 UTC
    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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