OT: swearing (was: RE: OnFileOpent(self, event))

[Tim Golden]

Alan Kennedy:

[re swearing in a newsgroup where youngsters may lurk]

Peter Hansen:

> It was probably a high-school kid asking the question!  :-)  the kids
[...]
> have grown up hearing the phrase in every TV show and movie they've ever
> watched?  ;-)

For some years now I've been running boys' clubs here in London. Nothing 
 special, just ordinary schoolboys from ordinary families. Certainly we
 discourage the boys from what you might call casual swearing, partly
because
 it's just ugly, and partly because it leaves you at a disadvantage when
 you *really* want to make a point.

We don't pretend it's the worst thing you can do, but still we encourage
them
 to gain a degree of control over what they say, and when, and in what
 circumstances, and to whom.

For us, it's a question of atmosphere: the atmosphere generated at the Club
by
 its members and leaders. My feeling is that that intangible "atmosphere"
has 
 a lot more influence than people realise. It's hard to explain why the
absence
 of something (in the case of this newsgroup: rudeness, swearing and
impatience) 
 should have an influence on people, young and old, but I believe it does.
And long may it stay that way.

TJG

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