View source for rude-email-responses

= Responding to rude emails =
We need everyone's help to keep the community civil and friendly (see [[mailing-list#Be_nice|be nice]] in the mailing list guidelines), however, sometimes someone will say something rude on the email list. In such cases it is useful to have a set of pre-written responses to make it easier to deal with. Here are a few actual examples with responses you may use:

== unsubstantiated claim of repeated issue ==
Example rude text:
<blockquote>"something many people talked about on microformats.org for years. A few years ago it was brought up on a regular basis by newcomers, about twice a year." -[http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2011-June/013414.html]</blockquote>

Response:
<pre>
If something was "brought up on a regular basis by newcomers", 
provide the URLs.
</pre>

== false claim of excluding newcomers ==
Example rude text:
<blockquote>"newcomers were then driven out of the community." -[http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2011-June/013414.html]</blockquote>

Response:
<pre>
No one was "driven out". We've had to ban a few trolls for negative behaviors 
for fixed periods of time, but haven't had to do any such thing 
for over a year (maybe 2) now.
</pre>

== empty claims of use-cases ==
Example rude text:
<blockquote>"I had actual parsing uses-cases for such a feature as well as
publishing use-cases" -[http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2011-June/013414.html]</blockquote>

Response:
<pre>
If you had "actual parsing uses-cases for such a feature 
as well as publishing use-cases", at what URL did you document them?
</pre>

== name-calling elitism ==
Example rude text:
<blockquote>"Not everyone tried to follow the process but I did, to the same end. After everything, the elitism of uf.org turned me off to the whole effort." -[http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2011-June/013414.html]</blockquote>

Response:
<pre>
If you consider requiring documentation on the web/wiki and 
being rigorous as "elitism of uf.org" then, yes, 
you're not going to be very productive.
</pre>

== name-calling cabal ==
Example rude text:
<blockquote>"I decided not to waste my time trying to be in the cabal." -[http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2011-June/013414.html]</blockquote>

Response:
<pre>
Developing microformats is not for everyone - 
only those that are willing to document their work and 
be scientific in their methods. 
If you consider "science" to be a cabal, 
then you're not going to find much sympathy and 
should take your name-calling elsewhere.
</pre>

== related ==
* [[mailing-list]]