From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: John Darrington Subject: My recent appalling behaviour on this list. Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2017 06:46:00 +0100 Message-ID: <20170323054600.GA18841@jocasta.intra> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="RnlQjJ0d97Da+TV1" Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:58163) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cqvZZ-0006JQ-Cv for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Mar 2017 01:46:10 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cqvZV-0006EK-ED for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Mar 2017 01:46:09 -0400 Received: from de.cellform.com ([88.217.224.109]:33326 helo=jocasta.intra) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cqvZV-0006Bn-5a for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Mar 2017 01:46:05 -0400 Received: from jocasta.intra (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by jocasta.intra (8.14.4/8.14.4/Debian-8+deb8u1) with ESMTP id v2N5k1hX018896 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT) for ; Thu, 23 Mar 2017 06:46:01 +0100 Received: (from john@localhost) by jocasta.intra (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) id v2N5k04R018895 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Mar 2017 06:46:00 +0100 Content-Disposition: inline List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: guix-devel@gnu.org --RnlQjJ0d97Da+TV1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Occasionally one makes mistakes. On this occasion I have made an enormous one. I hope this post will go some small way to put it right and explain how it came about. I don't seek to excuse anything I said or did. The entire ugly thread started last week when I replied to this message from ng0: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2017-03/msg00482.html Unfortunately, I replied having read only ng0's postscript and not the context in which it was written. I erroneously thought ng0 was telling us that one should ALWAYS use singular-they when referring to ANY indefinite individual in the third person. It never occured to me (as is obvious when I now read it properly) that this was a request from ng0 to refer to themselves that way. I assumed the context was some patch to the Guix user-manual. I did not read the mail properly and I shouted off before I was in possession of the facts. In my mistaken belief that ng0 was trying to impose upon the world new rules of English grammar, I considered this to be an assault on freedom of speech. I told ng0 I would refuse to comply, having completely misunderstood (and failed to clarify) the request. Ng0's angry response, I attributed to wounded pride, an over-inflated ego and a childish temperament on ng0's part. I now see that this was totally unfounded. Under the circumstances, ng0 had every right to feel extremely insulted and very angry at what I said. The people who sprang to his defence are commendable. In the very long flame-war which followed I thought I was acting in the interests of freedom of speech (and saving the English language at the same time). Had I taken the time to check the facts before opening my mouth, this entire unpleasant episode would have been avoided. I did not do so, and that was inexcusable.=20 I apologise to ng0 without reservation. If I ever have cause to discuss ng0 in the third person, I will of course do so using their pronoun of choice. I apologise too, to the rest of this list for wasting time and resources, on a completely unnecessary flame-war, which could have been avoided if only I had fully read a post before replying. J' --=20 Avoid eavesdropping. Send strong encrypted email. PGP Public key ID: 1024D/2DE827B3=20 fingerprint =3D 8797 A26D 0854 2EAB 0285 A290 8A67 719C 2DE8 27B3 See http://sks-keyservers.net or any PGP keyserver for public key. --RnlQjJ0d97Da+TV1 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: Digital signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 iEYEARECAAYFAljTYRgACgkQimdxnC3oJ7N2jACeKK6uoPS9abQo9zdOvhSnhPKm ITsAoIpbj52hLDdHgmywc42xqWmSWH9W =Hh1o -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --RnlQjJ0d97Da+TV1--