[ZWeb] statistical nonsense

[Terry Jones]

| Seriously, you seemed like a well meaning, fairly clued up, if slightly
| arrogant guy when you offered to help, but these tirades of abuse are
| making you look like a clown - and I should know; Google can testify to
| several of my own clownish tirades...

Nice bit of reflection Chris - glad to see you have it in you :-)

| Justin, good luck with TurboGears, I hope none too many of your customers
| stumble across your postings here...

This is a pretty fun thread - I even went back and read through the whole
saga to follow the evolution, and not out of interest in DNS zone transfers.

The great thing about these flame-ups is that the stuff people post is most
likely going to be online and available FOREVER (modulo indignant cease &
desist letters sent to Alexa, Google, etc., threatening to sue them for
harassing you and damaging your business by archiving the things you said
that might damage your business if they were found).

And all this is only going to get easier to find. I can look up postings I
made and silly things I sent to newsgroups from 20 years ago. So your kids
(if any) will be able to read them. Your clients can read them.  People who
might want to hire you can read them. When I've hired people to work with
full time, the first thing I do when I find a resume that looks like a
possible fit is to google the name and see how the person looks online from
a year ago, two years ago, five years ago, etc. Without meaning to be
personal, and certainly my own opinion doesn't matter at all here, I
wouldn't even consider hiring or contracting someone who posts in some of
the styles floating around here. My particular opinion of particular
individuals doesn't matter a damn, BUT the wider point is something that
may give you pause: you may be digging your own grave when you mercilessly
flame some clueless newbie or threaten lawsuits etc., potentially doing
yourself MUCH more damage (especially long-term) than anyone else in the
process.

My strategy has just been to change jobs, email addresses, and countries so
often that even my friends can't keep track of me anymore. The ultimate
camouflage though is the combination of the name Terry Jones and coding in
Python.

Anyway, I'm not trying to put the brakes on this show. It sure can be fun
to let it all hang out online. It's very entertaining, and we're getting it
all on tape for posterity.

Terry