Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: It's a lovely day in the neighborhood
Author: David McCusker Posted: 9/16/2000; 10:48:01 PM Topic: It's a lovely day in the neighborhood Msg #: 21432 (In response to 21430) Prev/Next: 21431 / 21433
Josh Allen: No, I just don't have the text in front of me.Okay, I'm sorry for chivvying you. Let it go. Thanks for being a good sport.
Josh Allen: But despite my enthusiasm for this new medium, I must also be aware that anything I say publicly could tomorrow find itself on the front page of the NY Times, characterized as the official stance of the company I love.
Say no more. I sympathize entirely. And an even scarier thing can happen. If someone ever says you said "XYZ" sometimes folks will believe this even if you never said that, because they can't be bothered to read what you wrote. Eek.
(This happened to me at Nescape. A third party told Netscape that my public writing had said XYZ, when this was in no way the case. Later, I had a high level manager say to me, so you're the guy who said XYZ. Needless to say, I was not very pleased.)
Um, now that I've mentioned I worked at both Apple and Netscape, I should say I'm not working for anyone currently (having a lovely sabbatical), though I'll be job hunting in a couple months. This makes sense when we're bothering to discuss your current employment.
Josh Allen:So there is another issue in trust. When I post something, do I trust the broad audience with access to this message will use what I say ethically? Is there any possibility that the things I say could be misused or mis-represented in a lawsuit? There is no policy on this, and it is something that definitely tests "good judgement". I mean, for a smart software developer, it is easy to find a million possible chances for misuse in any innocent e-mail, and crafting a message that cannot possibly be misconstrued becomes a gargantuan task. Every e-mail becomes yet another risk that your enemies will pull out some ammunition to use against you. Every message sent that expresses the slightest bit of opinion is cause for a knot in your gut.
I quote this whole thing because it rings with truth for me. The way you say this has a quality that makes me trust you more. I like hearing about how problems sound from your point of view, and it's great when sincerity shows so very clearly. I just wanted to say that was a nice paragraph.
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