[asterisk-biz] Mike Diehl-Fax Service

[Don Kelly]

I agree with much of what you say regarding judging the quality of a
potential vendor by how carefully they express themselves, but I don't think
it's appropriate for anyone to adopt the role of critic unless the person
being critiqued has requested that service.

Setting oneself up as an arbiter of linguistic perfection invites others to
question why you use two spaces after a semicolon, use commas carelessly,
use hyphens instead of dashes and use a structure like "are both (1)
necessary and (2) don't set themselves."

What does "as regards" mean? It must be a colloquialism in your area. 

If you think proofreading by a native speaker is a good idea, why the
English-English spelling of "demeanour," "actualise" and "anatomising"?

--Don

Don Kelly

PCF Corp
People Come First
651 842-1000
888 Don Kell(y)
651 842-1001 fax


-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Alex Balashov
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 7:04 PM
To: asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com
Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Mike Diehl-Fax Service

On 03/30/2010 07:35 PM, Xirak M wrote:

> You surely got issues with these guys!
>
> The guy is just trying to sell stuff and he got his point across loud
> and clear.
>
> Calm down le professeur!

In principle, you are correct.  And, I'm not an academic;  I'm in 
business as much as everyone else.  :-)

My argument about why I take these stances has always been that 
standards of discourse, and specifically, quality of writing and 
thought, are both (1) necessary and (2) don't set themselves.

If you believe the point of the list is simply to enable the transaction 
of commerce by whatever communicative means are adequate to convey the 
information, then there's really no need for any standards or to call 
anyone out on quality of presentation.

in fact we cn all mk r pitch in txt spk cuz it stl has recvrable signal 
U no?  y bother

 From a purely functional, utilitarian standpoint, it certainly works.

I suppose I have always attached additional qualitative value to good 
communication, and also think that on an interpersonal level it is a 
valuable point of marketing differentiation.  Additionally, in my 
experience underlying intelligence and diligence expressed in writing is 
a useful data point insofar as it correlates sufficiently to the quality 
of the vendor as regards technical sophistication and effectiveness of 
customer service.  It is not the only data point, of course, and there 
are exceptions to everything.

However, I'll bet I'm not the only person that associates poor writing 
with poor thinking, which, when peeled away, often reveals poor 
technology, bad design, and other signs of amateur structure, naive 
business models, spotty fly-by-night operations, 
fast-and-loose/get-rich-quick thinking, and other weaknesses in 
underlying substance.  I've certainly received enough e-mail privately 
from members of this list suggesting that they concur with this 
assessment, and have even gotten a few customers who singled me out for 
my stances on this as a useful differentiating point.

If you don't happen to share in these inductive associations, then you 
will see what I do as a pointless waste of time and the expression of a 
needlessly abrasive, immature demeanour.  I'm certainly neither 
oblivious to that nor unaware of the liabilities it carries to my 
reputation, or the resulting business impact.

However, as I'm sure you know, some people go into business for 
themselves not only to make money, but also to be able to actualise - to 
put into practice - certain strongly-held values;  in other words, to do 
whatever it is they believe the right thing to be.  This ability is 
often constrained in most employment settings.  It also often conflicts 
with the imperative of making money, which can be clearly seen from how 
popular my idiosyncrasies make me.  It can also win a lot of solidarity 
and partisanship from folks who privately agree with me, which I found 
to be a pleasant surprise on a commercial and personal level, as I was 
definitely not expecting that.

-- 
Alex Balashov - Principal
Evariste Systems LLC

Tel    : +1 678-954-0670
Direct : +1 678-954-0671
Web    : http://www.evaristesys.com/

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