[COFF] [TUHS] Re: The AWK Programming Language, 2nd Ed.: What's new?

segaloco via COFF coff at tuhs.org
Sat Sep 16 10:24:27 AEST 2023


My two cents, anyone is free to express whatever views they want, just as they are free to express opposition to whatever views they want.  Of course, there are lines one can cross and find themselves on the business end of a ban from a mailing list, but at the same time, most folks who mean harm will peter themselves out when they don't get the attention they crave, or it'll become obvious that they stuck their foot in it and they'll try and correct.  The trick is figuring out the nuances of your audience and understanding what does and doesn't contribute value to discussion.  Also, we all have the ability to communicate on or off list.  I'm guilty of this myself with Al Kossow in the past, and I own that, but airing a concern or conflict via reply all is rarely helpful, this is a lesson I myself and still trying to get better about.

As for Mary Ann's sig, personally I'm always happy to see it when she posts.  I'm not very visibily NB but the part of me that wholly rejects the concept of gender has always appreciated that working in and with technology has presented countless folks more opportunity than ever to come out and be done with the closet.  Life is multi faceted, go figure that kids like me that grow up exploring systems thinking and the like sometimes wind up rejecting aspects of our broken social systems :)

- Matt G.

P.S. In keeping with the theme of my message, I'm personally not seeking debate on support for the trans community.  If you take a page from my advice and contact me directly in a combative sense just know you will be at the least ignored, at the most, say something particularly toxic and I probably won't be the only person to know you harbor those thoughts...

------- Original Message -------
On Friday, September 15th, 2023 at 4:28 PM, Anthony Martin <ality at pbrane.org> wrote:


> Warren Toomey via TUHS tuhs at tuhs.org once said:
> 
> > The history of Unix is not just of the technology, but also of the
> > people involved, their successes and travails, and the communities
> > that they built. Mary Ann referenced a book about her life and
> > journey in her e-mail's .sig. She is a very important figure in the
> > history of Unix and I think her .sig is entirely relevant to TUHS.
> 
> 
> Are you fine with everyone advertising whatever views
> and products they want in their signatures or would I
> have to be a very important figure?
> 
> If I want to say, for example, that the vast amount of
> software related to Unix that came out of Berkeley was
> so harmful it should have a retroactive Prop 65 label,
> would that be okay to have in my signature?
> 
> Cheers,
> Anthony
> 
> The vast amount of software related to Unix that came
> out of Berkeley was so harmful it should have a
> retroactive Prop 65 label.
> 
> [Quote from some person completely unrelated to Unix.]
> 
> [A link to buy my children's picture book about the
> tenuous connection between Unix and the NATO terror
> bombing of Yugoslavia, direct from Jeff Beelzebub's
> bookstore.]
> 
> End of signature.
> 
> Sorry Warren, I couldn't help myself. I was "triggered"
> just like Dan Cross, previously in that thread, who could
> not stay silent.
> 
> "Silence is violence, folx."
> - Sus of size (a.k.a. postmodernist Porky Pig)
> 
> Sent to COFF as Dan should have done.


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