[Python-ideas] string.format() default variable assignment

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 02 Mar 2013 23:00:13 -0500, Devin Jeanpierre wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 10:21 PM, Steven D'Aprano
> <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
>> How the flying fuck does my choice of where and how *I* read this forum
>> inconvenience YOU?
>>
>> Talk about an overactive sense of entitlement. The world does not
>> revolve around you and I do not arrange my day to suit your
>> preferences.
> 
> I don't agree with what he said, but I think what he was getting at is
> that it's inconvenient to be polite to you according to the standards
> you have set.

Whether I read these messages via Usenet or email or a web-based archive 
or by having a trained monkey forward the message to me in Morse code 
makes *absolutely no difference* to the sender. All he need do is send to 
the same list *he* reads the messages from, using whatever protocol he 
chooses to use.

The very idea that my choice to read this in Pan newsreader rather than 
some email client somehow inconveniences David Robinow is stupid.

Furthermore, he's picked out the *least* important part of my original 
email to respond to. Even if I read this via email rather than news, 
people emailing me directly rather than via the list may bypass any email 
filters I may have set up. The use of news rather than email is merely 
*equivalent* to a filter, where posts to this forum go into my news 
reader instead of my email inbox.

And then there are people who go on No Mail and read responses via a web 
archive, including the dreaded Google Groups. Or rather than receiving 
individual messages, they go on digest mail. By emailing them directly, 
you dis-empower them, taking away their choice of how they read messages 
on that mailing list.

I'm sorry, but *your response is not that important* that you get to 
thoughtlessly take away my choice of where and how I read messages. 
(That's generic "you", not specifically you, Devin). That's a sign of 
unreasonable sense of entitlement, conscious or not, and lack of 
consideration for others.

I'm not being unreasonable here. Not withstanding the occasional person, 
like Roy Smith, who considers it a good thing[1], if you reply directly 
to the sender, in a small way you are taking away the sender's freedom of 
choice. And that is rude.





[1] Perhaps Roy hasn't experienced really high volume threads, with 
hundreds of messages a day, and getting two copies of every email in any 
thread you replied to. I have.


-- 
Steven