Including the previous message/Digest choices

Rodger Whitlock totototo@telus.net
Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:56:35 PST
On 31 Jan 2012, at 1:24, steven hart wrote:

> Hey Max, Ive seen this here before & never known what <SNIP> means, can u
> fill me in on this one, it always has that look like someone is being rude, am i
> right ? : )
> 
> On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 1:04 AM, David Nicholson <d.avensis@virgin.net>wrote:
> 
> > Max Withers wrote:-
> > <SNIP>.....I must say that the I find the inability of some of our new
> > members to use google or spell............<SNIP>


Into the breach!

<snip> is merely a way to indicate that text has been elided. No pejorative 
value at all. I prefer to just use diaeresis ... instead. If I'm responding 
point by point, then I put each response after a snippet of text, just enough 
to give context, and don't bother indicating elision.

Very early in my online career, I used <snip> a lot, but abandoned the use 
after a short while. I suppose it's still useful once in a while, but I can't 
remember when I last used it.

Incidentally, in my previous message I wrote

> Anybody whining that they don't understand is just being lazy!

On reading over what I wrote, I realized that it sounds like I was criticizing 
Steven Hart. That wasn't my intention and I apologize both to Steven and to all 
PBS list subscribers for giving that impression. I was thinking of the real 
doofuses out there whom you cross paths with sometimes - the kind of people who 
don't know anything and stubbornly refuse to even try to learn anything 
new because they already know everything they need to know. Not!

There's actually a formal name for something very close to that description: 
"Dunning-Kruger syndrome". Wikipedia has an article iirc.






-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Z. 7-8, cool Mediterranean climate



More information about the pbs mailing list