Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:49 am Post subject: Editing of Engliish language versions of documentation
I moved to English (from Finnish) at an early age. My date of birth,1 April 36, became an historic date that shall live on in fame as the date of the first publication of Consumer Reports magazine. Born left-handed of two left-handed parents, I have always been good at imagining a more correct way and a more evocative way to deliver a written message.
Writing to tech users (in applied physics and computer tools) since about 1958, I have seen the evolution of the subject matter and the reading users since then.
Whenever I run into a snag in technical writing, I have the compulsion to remove that snag. If I were repairing roads, I would first fill in the deepest holes. When I respond to a written message, I must improve the message where necessary before I contentedly respond to it.
I may now have found a possible avocation in English documentation editing for NeoOffice. To be sure, I don't see a serious deep hole to mend in this case. I seek to mend it, because it is an example of my inspired work to smooth the road.
I want to donate money to the cause. I happen to know that PayPal could possibly accept credit card donations to NeoOffice. This knowledge leads to confusion when I read in NeoOffice documentation that NeoOffice donations through Pay;Pal, unlike credit card donations, are especially economical for receipt of NeoOffice donations.
I think I understand the intent of the confusing NeoOffice document on donations. It is like telling the donor to put a stamp over the prepaid mark on a donor envelope. I would neither put a stamp on a prepaid envelope nor ask a donor to do so. That is rude to ask, inconvenient for the donor, and that request implies that the recipient considers the prepaid cost undesirable and begs for more of a donation.
Since I believe donations should be done voluntarily and should be to the extent that the donation feels good, such begging for more money turns off this donor. It spoils the donor's good feeling.
Trying to fill that hole in my path, I offer a written complete substitute to advise NeoOffice donors as follows: NeoOffice encourages donors to give until it feels good, and, if it feels good, donate using a credit card through PayPal on the Internet.
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:08 am Post subject: Re: Editing of Engliish language versions of documentation
garbogie wrote:
Since I believe donations should be done voluntarily and should be to the extent that the donation feels good, such begging for more money turns off this donor. It spoils the donor's good feeling.
Trying to fill that hole in my path, I offer a written complete substitute to advise NeoOffice donors as follows: NeoOffice encourages donors to give until it feels good, and, if it feels good, donate using a credit card through PayPal on the Internet.
Sorry, but I find your post a bit offensive. When I read your post, I sense that the message you are giving me is that begging for money is rude. You are entitled to feel that way, but I have found it rude that 99.9% of NeoOffice users enjoy the benefits of NeoOffice's free download and support forums yet never give a dime for software. Meanwhile, I have been slowly bleeding my savings to make NeoOffice available for free. Software like NeoOffice costs real money and time to create and those costs have been funded by my personal savings. Donations have only partially funded the amount that I must put in each year.
The number of users is skyrocketing and Apple has added a second platform for me to deal with. Meanwhile, the number of donations has been falling. In other words, the work keeps growing but the means to do the work keeps shrinking. I am constantly asking myself why I spend so much of my own money and time on something that I am unable to earn a living at.
Put yourself in my shoes. Can you find a reason to spend full-time on a project like NeoOffice when you know that you cannot make a living doing it?
While your new wording is nice, I think that it sends the message that donations are nice but aren't really needed. Unfortunately, the opposite is true: the future of NeoOffice depends directly on how much donations are received.
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:48 am Post subject: Re: Editing of Engliish language versions of documentation
pluby wrote:
Put yourself in my shoes. Can you find a reason to spend full-time on a project like NeoOffice when you know that you cannot make a living doing it?
While your new wording is nice, I think that it sends the message that donations are nice but aren't really needed. Unfortunately, the opposite is true: the future of NeoOffice depends directly on how much donations are received.
Patrick
Patrick (pluby) pitches pouty plea. Grandly, Garbogie gradually gathers grateful gifts (for NeoOffice Open Source work).
Patrick (pluby), if you are open to grateful expressions of the immense relief felt after the discovery and successful use of the decades of good works provided by Open Source, the large number of beneficiaries of that Open Source work may hereby take my hint to innundate you with it.
I am reminded of W.C. Fields, the hero, "Victor Souse (sues, eh)" in his movie, "The Bank Dick." By sitting drunkenly outside the bank on a bench, Fields was in the way of the bank robbers trying to get away. The gang fell all over the bench as well as each other and on Fields in their very clumsy get away. The police nabbed the gangsters as a result. Fields was appointed the bank's detective, and asked to appear before the President of the bank for his reward.
Appearing before the President, Fields was congratulated and grandly offered the reward of a hearty handclasp!
Garbogie found a little editing hole on the pathway to setting up a (long neglected) convenient PayPal donation, and, then, Garbogie tried to fix that hole.
Is PayPal already set up to gather our grateful gifts to you all from our credit cards?
Joined: Jan 23, 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Seattle, WA (Pacific Standard Time)
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:53 pm Post subject: Re: Editing of Engliish language versions of documentation
Anonymous wrote:
I have seriously read your posts twice and have no clue as to what you are talking about. Technical writing? Not on this planet.
To contentedly respond to "Anonymous," Garbogie took the liberty to first make that post comfortable. Every sentence lacked capitalization.
Garbogie gathers from that post that "Anonymous" did not understand that Garbogie was describing an ability to form and deliver a message with good effect.
In chosing an example of a message needing good effect, Garbogie chose to discuss the PayPal method of gifting money to express gratitude for the Open Source work products, NeoOffice, in particular.
Garbogie criticized the existing message about donations and emphasized the immense gratitude for Open Source products that can find a release and expression easily through the use of PayPal.
In service of the overall objective of "Editing of English language versions of documentation," meaning, in particular, user friendly documentation for NeoOffice, Garbogie recommends what works in a message to gain good effect.
As to "Anonymous," not having a "clue" about Garbogie's message, Garbogie needs particular examples that trouble "Anonymous." Only then might Garbogie better understand how "Anonymous" may be served by a more thoughtful response.
Joined: Jan 23, 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Seattle, WA (Pacific Standard Time)
Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 1:41 pm Post subject:
jakeOSX wrote:
Cue tomahawk.
Garbogie reports research on this two-word one-sentence message post:
This two-word post comes from a member who has recorded over 600 posts since joining in 2003 -- and supplied no capitalization, furnishing only the final period.
Though "OSX" suggests experience in the estimable Apple Macintosh culture, meaning Apple's Operating System 10, the "X" places "OSX" also in the estimable Open Source and Unix cultures. Garbogie recommends spelling it out, to give credit where credit is due. Garbogie expects to see each of those estimable cultures in the land of Linux, accepting a Nobel Prize from royalty.
Garbogie, having grown up looking in the Finnish-English dictionary to find the meanings of Inuit (First-Nation Native-American) words, wishes to credit the North American tribes with the word "tomahawk." Used as a noun by those tribes for a cutting tool and weapon, it is also used for a verb.
Garbogie here has an apology to make. The word "Garbogie" is pretentious to go public without honoring both "Garbo" and "Bogie" and disclaiming any personal magic therefrom.
Garbogie here credits "jakeOSX" with the wisdom to know that the shorter the message, the more it can possibly mean. Garbogie wishes to protect, honor, and serve the cultures mentioned above, and suggests that "jakeOSX" refer to previous posts that do so as well -- especially in the short messages.
Garbogie points out that commercials on television speak of thick computer manuals with disdain and then offer a better alternative. One of Garbogie's dozen Macintoshes came from Apple with a set-up and user manual consisting of four pages of pictures and no words of any language.
For 35 years, Garbogie has pioneered memorable hypertext navigation to messages having good effect. Garbogie believes they can only help NeoOffice.
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