To the guys in the forum

[eganonstwr]

Please dont take my posts as offensive, its just the way im comfortable to speak, i respect all of you and dont want to offend anyone, i know developers are smart by reading this(if they even read) they may take some things under consideration if they find appropriate and sorry for bad english

[Pernicious]

You and I (and evidently many people since you are posting this at all) have probably got off on the wrong foot. So take this advice in good faith:

 

I work as a sales engineer. If you don't know what that is, I help people design and build networks, and persuade them to buy the resulting products off me. So yes, you could say that persuading other technical professionals is my job.

 

Sales engineering is a fairly unique job - the combination of being good with tech and good with people is as rare as Sitcoms and cliches make it out to be. I have seriously seen some of my peers end their career by insulting the very people they are trying to pursuade. Most often that occurs when people get emotional and don't differentiate "This is important to me" vs "This is important to you".

 

As an example, while collecting information from a customer, I noticed their license had expired and they were in the grace period. I could have said "You are illegally using our software, you need to pay us for it as soon as possible". That would have sent a message that "This is important to me". 

 

Instead, I sent a message saying "Hey, I noticed your grace period ends in 30 days, after that, the software will stop working and the way you've configured it, all internet access will be blocked, disrupting your business" This sends a message that it is important to them. In every message I have read of yours, you've consistently made statements that say it's important to you, but made little arguement that it is important to them.

 

You've also made plenty of statements which are either outright insults or could be interpreted as insults e.g.

 

52 minutes ago, eganonstwr said:

(if they even read)

 

Do you mean "If they read these forums" (not an insult, but shows you haven't bothered to engage or do your own research), or do you mean "If they're even smart enough to read" (Unlikely given your previous statement calling the devs smart, but given your history, I bet some people will interpret it that way).

 

In other words, your way of communication is ineffective. You do offend people and it makes it much harder to convince people of any good ideas you do have.

 

Saying:

54 minutes ago, eganonstwr said:

its just the way im comfortable to speak,

Is also a double edged sword. It says both "Please excuse me", but also "I don't intend to change". It gives people the option of dismissing you entirely, and I think that is what most people will end up doing.

 

If you want to take my advice, then rethink the way you post. As the saying goes (and it is English, attributed to Benjamin Franklin, so you might not be familiar with it) "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar" 

[Ramethzer0]

I don't think your posts are offensive per se.   I don't think most people want to actually come off as being offensive in particular.

 

That being said, I am agreeing quite a bit with what @Pernicious has stated.   It's hard to address groups of people.  It's even harder to address

them in a format where context and subtext may not be readily understandable.  Don't take this me chastizing you either, because were all

people and we all got our own things to work on.   It's encouraging to see that you're seeing this effect in action and communicating your pitfalls.

 

When I was at university, I minored in Linguistics and Communications.  Believe me, being precise with language and its underlying savvy is

something I've struggled with my entire life.  Its difficult, especially when casually addressing large groups accustomed to a different tone or more

professional style of speaking.   It's something I feel I never quite master, but I do try.

 

I hope you manage to work this out in your own time.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Ramethzer0 (see edit history)