Nice one POV-Team - it's great you're aware of the international (including
British English users) use of your program :)

It can only help get more people in to POV!

Wow.. this has created one of the biggest news-threads I've seen though :P


Matt

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>Whoever is writing  the string/menu resources for  the Windows version is
not
>very adept with words like optimized, minimized, or customized...all of
which
>are misspelled: optimised, minimised, and customised in POVray. Bad
spelling
>is just one of those things that detracts from the professionalism of the
>product and makes users question the intelligence of the authors.


"What's the point of being ignorant, if you can't show it!"
                                                    Farmer in County Kerry,
Ireland

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Az an American az well, I would like to zay that I think thiz personz complaint iz
a perfectly good one.  Fine, wordz like optimized, minimized, and customized might
not in any way impact the actual performanze of the program, but who are U 2 write
anything that doezn't conform to the U Z of A'z form of mutilated Englizh.  We are
the ones who have taken the lowly Z and made it into zomething useful.  Until we
got our handz on it, the only uze for it waz when writing the word zebra.  What a
wazte.

Therefore, I would like to izzue a formal requezt for the following zyntax:

zphere
zuperellipzoid
zor
tranzmit
tranzlate
zcale
zpiral1
zpiral2
wrinklz
mezh
zpotted
zpecular
roughnezz

Therz probably more, but I'm too upzet too think of them.  Az a matter of fact, the
only one you got right waz bozo!

sinzerily,

zelda ziznadiznorn
UZA


povray.org admin team wrote:

> We also would like to officially nominate Jason Barlow for the 'Rudest Support
> Email of 1998' award.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Return-Path: jas### [at] xmissioncom
> From: "Jason Barlow" <jas### [at] xmissioncom>
> To: <win### [at] povrayorg>
> Subject: Minor Bug...
> Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 01:03:02 -0600
>
> [request for the following 'bug' to be fixed in version 3.1 deleted]
>
> Whoever is writing  the string/menu resources for  the Windows version is not
> very adept with words like optimized, minimized, or customized...all of which
> are misspelled: optimised, minimised, and customised in POVray. Bad spelling
> is just one of those things that detracts from the professionalism of the
> product and makes users question the intelligence of the authors.
>
> [rest of email deleted]
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> He's questioning _our_ intelligence ... ? ;)
>
> -- POV-Ray Webmaster

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err, i agree its silly someone requests a bugremovement cos there
are misspelled (only in the eyes of guys outside usa) words.

but its against any netiquette to post privat email in a newsgroup.

let abu### [at] xmissioncom or the sysadmin of xmission deal with
jason barlows rudeness.

>Return-Path: jas### [at] xmissioncom
>From: "Jason Barlow" <jas### [at] xmissioncom>
>To: <win### [at] povrayorg>
>Subject: Minor Bug...
>Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 01:03:02 -0600

>[request for the following 'bug' to be fixed in version 3.1 deleted]

>Whoever is writing  the string/menu resources for  the Windows version is not
>very adept with words like optimized, minimized, or customized...all of which
>are misspelled: optimised, minimised, and customised in POVray. Bad spelling
>is just one of those things that detracts from the professionalism of the
>product and makes users question the intelligence of the authors.

>[rest of email deleted]

--
LOAD "WIN95",8,1
RUN

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What about the lowly Z-Buffer? ;-)
And what about "The Zone" ;-)

--
Lance.


---
For the latest MAX plug-ins, images and much more, go to:
The Zone - http://come.to/the.zone

Post a reply to this message

>err, i agree its silly someone requests a bugremovement cos there
>are misspelled (only in the eyes of guys outside usa) words.

it's not the request that is the problem. it's the extreme rudeness (didn't you
notice that?)

>but its against any netiquette to post privat email in a newsgroup.

1) not all of the email was posted (just the offending section)

2) mail sent to the bug reporting address is hardly 'private'.
   'private' email is that sent between individuals for the
   purpose of communications. a bug report is obviously something
   that may be disseminated to others (that's half the reason for
   sending them in some cases).

so your comments don't apply in this case. we do not consider bug reports
private.

Post a reply to this message

> >but its against any netiquette to post privat email in a newsgroup.
> 
> 1) not all of the email was posted (just the offending section)
> 
> 2) mail sent to the bug reporting address is hardly 'private'.
>    'private' email is that sent between individuals for the
>    purpose of communications. a bug report is obviously something
>    that may be disseminated to others (that's half the reason for
>    sending them in some cases).
> 
> so your comments don't apply in this case. we do not consider bug reports
> private.

hmmm... a good point, and a good reply...
I know I'm splitting hairs here, but I've gotta say this: I think it's safe to
say that Jason considered his e-mail to be private, and certainly not to be
posted in a newsgroup to be laughed at. As inconsiderate as he may be, he
doesn't deserve our unkindness in return. Whether all of the e-mail was posted
or not isn't really the point; some of it was posted, and his e-mail address
was not omitted (I haven't checked to see whether it is an actual address),
presumably without his knowledge. That's questionable netiquette, especially
considering the tone of the post ("We also would like to officially nominate
Jason Barlow for the 'Rudest Support Email of 1998' award.") I would be
surprised if he hasn't received other e-mails, which were actually encouraged:

>we're posting this here in the hope that some of
>his fellow POV Users will also be able to explain this to him in a more
>reasoned way (rather then the somewhat annoyed tone of our reply ;)

Chances are that not all of them were intelligently and patiently written.
Personally, I hope that the quick reply, written "in no uncertain terms", was
enough for Jason to realise how thoughtless he was. If not, then he may flaunt
his ignorance elsewhere, with other consequences. I agree that he was
surprisingly inconsiderate, but he doesn't deserve this public ridicule. Had
he posted that message himself, I wouldn't post this one, but he didn't, so I have.



-Mark R.
(considering what a Macophile I am, it's amusing that I'm posting to
'povray.windows'...)

(to e-mail, change "SPAM" to spa)

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povray.org admin team wrote in message
<3608448d.85304010@news.povray.org>...

>2) mail sent to the bug reporting address is hardly 'private'.
>   'private' email is that sent between individuals for the
>   purpose of communications. a bug report is obviously something
>   that may be disseminated to others (that's half the reason for
>   sending them in some cases).
>
>so your comments don't apply in this case. we do not consider bug reports
>private.


Bug Reports:HowTo

1. Note: Other people will read and likely archive your bug report.
2. Your purpose is to send data, isn't it?
3. You did remember to *remove* argumentative material?
4. Data, especially reproducible data, speaks for itself.
5. Mild guessing as to nature/cause/breeding/ancestory of bug is ok.
6. Promulgating a manifesto for your preferred redesign of POV is not ok.

... plus all the normal stuff
(
snippet of illustrative script,
sysinfo,
using the correct email address to send report to,
recognizable cognitive boundary between the potential problem
you are pointing to and your favorite color ... etc.
)

Any other additions, emendations, ... ?

Post a reply to this message

In some ways your reasoning makes sense, though I still feel that someone
posting an email to a generic bug reporting address (win### [at] povrayorg in this
case) ought to realise that at the very least, his report could go into a
publicly accessable bug database (that certainly is not unique in the industry
... I can cite the example of the Apache group (makers of the Apache web
server, which is the most popular on the internet) as a good example. As I
recall, all their bug reports are searchable by the public.

IMO it's never safe to 'assume' that any mail sent to a bug reporting address
is private (I certainly would not make that assumption).

However, to make sure this is known by users, a comment has been added to the
windows help file under the bug reports section telling them so. In addition,
we no longer will be taking Windows bug reports by email (that's not directly
related to this incident, though it didn't help). In future, all reports for
the Windows version must go to a newsgroup on this server.

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>5. Mild guessing as to nature/cause/breeding/ancestory of bug is ok.

6. mild guessing as to nature/cause/breeding/ancestory of POV authors is not ;)

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