To the advocacy list:

If you don't like flamage, go no further.  I'm about to cast a fourteen-
die fireball.  I hope it hits its mark, and I apologise for having chewed
up this bandwidth, most especially in netbsd-advocacy, but I don't see
a better place for this to go.

On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, Charles M. Hannum wrote:

# 
# Ah, once again, Curt is pulling one of his favorite tricks.  Since
# most people probably haven't seen this, I'll review:
# 
# * Curt sends a flame privately, fairly clearly intended to enrage the
#   target.  He also specifically notes that it's not to be
#   redistributed, probably because he doesn't want evidence of such
#   things floating around.
# 
# * Curt sends a short message which pretends to be nice to the public
#   list.  (Although the weasel-wording in the last part is kind of
#   humorous, in context.)
# 
# My *assumption* is that the point of this is to get the target to
# flame back on the public list and make people think they're being
# unreasonable.  If so: sorry, Curt, but you've pulled that trick too
# many times, and it's not going to work any more.

Charles,

I have responded privately and if you really want to, you have my
now explicit permission to post my flame to you.  I don't think it
will accomplish much to do so.

If you want public flamage, though, I will be blunt.  Your responses
to some of the questions here have been no less rude, tactless or
abrasive as some of Theo's rants were.  Both of you have come back
with some incredulous remark referring to the subject's intelligence,
choice of programming techniques and have stopped surprisingly short
of alluding to one's moral character or ancestry.  One difference is
that when I confronted Theo with it, usually explaining that "hey,
I was just asking a question -- there's no reason to be rude about
it; did I offend you?" the response was prompt, polite, and succinct,
and usually "I'm sorry, I've just had a bad day".

Another difference is that he was only rude to me _once_.

When I ask a question on line, I do my *absolute* best to make sure that
it is not a stupid question; when I submit code, if it gets rejected,
fine, I just want to know why so that if the idea has merit, I can re-
code it, or if the idea wasn't suited for NetBSD I can at least offer
it up as a private patch.

And usually, if I have a bone to pick, I will take it off line but
this time you have gone over the line.  If you have this need
to abuse someone, go kick a rock or a tin can or a lawyer or something,
but don't forget that the people on the other end of your phosphor-
or plasma-laden display are no less alive or deserving of respect
and courtesy than if they were in the same room with you.

This missive is a result of about three years of watching you with
your superior-to-thee attitude walk all over people who don't have
the fortune of being as bright as you are.  I happen to be one of those
people.  I'm *not* a kernel hacker.  I'm *not* a compiler guru.  Does
that automatically tack on the words "THIS IDIOT ASKED A STUPID QUESTION"
to my posts, in your eyes?

And yes, I'd take this up with you in person.  I'm not a multi-faced
person: my e-mail tone, personal tone and telephone manner are all
similar; I'd like to think of this a good thing, as I know people of
whom this is not the case.

And in spite of whatever sort of quip you might be enticed to return,
there are quite a few people out there who will attest that for the most
part I am a mild- mannered individual who goes out of his way to make sure
that people DON'T get hurt.  There have been exceptions and I have
apologised for them.  Obviously there has been no great damage done, so
life goes on.

But I will stand my ground on this one, while simultaneously apologising
to anyone else who needs one.  You'd figure that someone with
your intelligence and education could have learned some manners and
some _humility_.

				--*greywolf;