[Coco] Quoting private email

Christopher Smith csmith at wolfram.com
Thu Sep 26 19:51:35 EDT 2013



----- Original Message -----
> From: "tonym" <tonym at compusource.net>
> To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 5:49:26 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Quoting private email

> Let's see...
> 
> "Obviously <SuperDuperFluxCapacitorWidget> perfectly supports also
> the TRS-80.
> 
> ***The reason because you didn't find TRS-80 on the examples list is
> because
> <SuperDuperFluxCapacitorWidget> is a professional product with a
> "professional" price***
> 
> ***. We usually
> solve problems and provide all-inclusive assistance on industrial
> machinery
> that is worth more than 10.000$***
> 
> *** Our prices are not compatible with hobby usage.***
> 
> *** You should try to use this hobby emulator and hope they will give
> you some
> kind of support, I personally don't know them ***
> 
> 
> 
> Item name changed to protect the guil.. er, I mean, the innocent...
>   :)
> 
> 
> 
> Yup... Definitely set off MY pr!ck-O-meter deep into the red...
> 
> If you don't see that reply as condescending, then you need to read
> it again. And again. And again.
> 
> Think about it...
> It's OBVIOUS it's shows him in a bad light, else why would he ask it
> be removed?


In his defense, it's rather apparent that English isn't his first language.  It may be that he didn't mean to say precisely what he said at that point.  Imagine he'd phrased it this way: "It should work fine on the TRS-80.  We would provide full support in case of problems.  It's not on the list because it's not usually of interest to our clients who tend to use our device with expensive industrial machinery.  Our price tends to place the device out of reach of most hobbyists."   This conveys the same information in a less offensive way, but perhaps the expressions this guy is accustomed to using don't translate so well into English.  It's absolutely possible for something which is completely benign in another language to have an unintentional edge to it when translated.  If that was the only problem, of course I'd just put it down to linguistic trouble and not think twice about it.

Chris

-- 
Christopher Smith
Systems Engineer, Wolfram Research



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