After writing this, I'm saving it to send after you've answered my
question to tigg_teagan with a writing sample included. I think the
reasons will be clear.
On Sunday 29 July 2007, mick wenlock wrote:
> Hi Hal,
>
> Yes, I agree - if you were in a store and could not understand the
> clerk then you would be doing the store a favor by pointing it out.
>
> But that is because the store is there to sell you things, that is
> the clerk's job. You are a customer, they are a seller.
>
> This is *not* a store - it's a mailing list of people who are here
> because of different reasons. Such lists exist for people to talk
> (well, write) . If I were in a pub with a bunch of people and someone
> was talking who I did not understand I would not proceed to give him
> or her a lecture on how to talk - I would just ignore them.
What's similar is an issue of enabling people. If I don't speak to the
store manager, I'm allowing the behavior that hurts the store to
continue. If I don't care about the store or figure it's their
problem, then I don't mention it, but if I care enough to mention it,
I'm actually helping the store because I'm giving the manager a chance
to fix a problem that can drive people away.
All kinds of people come here. Most of the people are here because they
need help with someone in an MLM or are in one and questioning it. We
are here to help them and they judge us on the only thing they can: our
writing. This is not a chat room and it does have a permanent archive.
We are also opposing a nasty group of people. We do have times where
people call MLMers stupid, only to be reminded that some of the
smartest people on this board are ex-MLMers.
We are up against a people that call us bitter, that say we're losers,
that say we're too stupid to appreciate a good activity, or that we
just can't make it.
After hearing all those comments, still, some MLMers come to us for
help. If they hear all that, then come in and ask for help and get
posts that are unclear and confusing, then what will they think?
The writing sample I posted then asked what kind of response it would
get was my writing, with "example" replaced by "post." It was
something I wrote up to help my special ed students understand how hard
I have to work to just write so people can read my writing.
I know, from what a lot of people have said, that my posts have helped a
lot of people, but would they have helped people if I had not made them
presentable? Now, granted, that was my writing at my worst, and the
letter we're talking about is not as extreme, but it does make the
point that we are judged by how well we write and how easily our work
can be read.
How would someone who is thinking of leaving an MLM feel if, after
hearing all the slander about us, comes here and asks for help, and
they get several responses that are hard to understand?
We have to make it clear to those we're helping and to those we stand
against that we know what we're doing. Since this is a forum of text
and not speech or athletics, all we have to do that with is our
writing. If we respond to MLMers and those dealing with MLMs with
writing that uses multiple question marks, no indications of sentence
separation, and other examples that show a complete disregard for the
language, that only makes proving our point that much harder.
It's also a matter of respect. Now you know how hard I work on all my
posts. I've said before that I'd like to edit them, but it would
literally take hours out of each day if I edited all my correspondence
as much as I'd like to. I try to make my posts readable. Along the
way I've learned that long paragraphs in email are boring so I try to
break them up now. I know I can go on, which is another reason I break
up paragraphs. I know that makes it easier for speed readers to see if
they need to read a section more carefully.
Taking time to make it easy for a person to read your post is simply a
sign of respect for that person. Not taking time to make your
statements readable says, "I don't care enough to make this readable.
I know its my words and my opinions, but I just don't care enough about
it to put any effort into it. I do want you to read it, though, and to
make an effort to understand it. I don't respect you enough, though,
to put in the effort to make it easy for you to read. You should care
enough about my writing to put more effort into reading it than I put
into writing it."
> Criticizing people for the way they write rather than what they are
> writing about strikes me as going against what mailing lists and
> discussion groups are about.
It's letting them know they look slovenly. If I see a friend with
toilet paper stuck to their show, I'll say so. If I see a slob I don't
care about, I'll let them walk around and look silly. There's also the
point I made earlier: it helps us all look better and makes it easier
for us to reach out to those dealing with MLMs if we can present
ourselves as well educated, thoughtful, and logical people. Sloppy
writing does not help that and actually makes it more difficult.
Hal
