RE: Goodbye TECHWR-L

["Sean O'Donoghue-Hayes (EAA)" <Sean.O'Donoghue-Hayes -at- ericsson -dot- com -dot- au>]

Damn!

and Double Damn!! (he adds after reading this quickly written email)

I wasn't going to write this!

I, for one, shall...*gulp*.....miss the presence of Andrew Plato Esq.

Yes I didn't agree with a lot of what he said. Yes, at times I thought he
did play the player not the ball (however that was my perception - and email
is often about perception and impression and reading a voice into words that
was not perhaps there).

But also Yes he did have valuable things to say and contributions to give.
And YES! if half of what he writes other Technical Writers did are fact - in
regard to his comments on threats and so on - then I am greatly disappointed
with technical writing as a profession. And yes sometimes we did require
someone to say "now go back to work" and "now clean up your room" (actually
the second one was my mother when I was living at home!)....for we as a
community would be arguing about fontsize as if the fate of
nations/sheep-stations hung in the balance rather than, in many cases,
personal preference. 

For I have heard from people who have met him that Andrew in person is quite
personable - and many of his emails show a distinct "appearance" of humour.
Something that we can all use when working/creating/inspiring.

Andrew was always a great wall - you could throw the ball up against him and
see what the reaction was - and know that the reaction he gave was different
from the majority of technical writers - but also most probably NOT
different from the majority of people who end up paying our salaries and
offering positions at the companies at which we work.

Without Andrew how will I know how to answer those important questions at
the next job interview about making the customer happy and getting the bills
paid on time as against I will only use Word 2.3 to do documentation and
everything must be in 12 point Wingdings or else I am failing in my ethical
regard to the technical writing community!!! (In case you are wondering I
think the customer is always right is a good answer - and the better Andrew
answer - I suspect - would be the customer is always right....and after that
the customer pays for the right of being so right everything has to be
redone beyond a reasonable level of quality...).

I won't ask Andrew to come back. That is up to him - and I am sure that he
is adult enough to make such decisions for himself.

He shall be missed, his views shall be missed. Especially if I don't always
agree with him!

as I said at the start. Damn!      

regards and thanks, 
Sean O'Donoghue-Hayes

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Plato [mailto:intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, 19 April 2002 4:57 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Goodbye TECHWR-L



"Stephanie Pierre" <stefpierre -at- netscape -dot- net> wrote 

> -- You *do* ridicule people. All the time. 
> You bad-mouth nearly everybody, including 
> the poor sops who have to work for you.

You know what Stephanie, you have the dubious honor of being the straw that
broke my back. 

I am too busy to deal with this crap any longer. This is a dream come true
for
some of you. You got what you've always wanted. I am leaving the list. 

Now you're free to chat about the new fonts you'll use for your
internationally
recognized methodology. How you're going to information mapping school and
its
making you a better organizer of information you don't understand. You can
have
long rambling threads about how STC is the greatest organization in the
world.
And you won't have to fear me coming out and sniping at you.  

Since I've been here I've had my business, my life, and even my customers
threatened by list members who just can't handle me disagreeing with them. 
I've had people from this list call me "fat-ass" "faggot" and even some
clever
stuff like "menace to writing." All because I wouldn't agree with them.  

I need to stop this and and focus my life on things that really matter. The
truth is, I am not a technical writer any more and I haven't been for about
a
year. Sure I still do the occasional job for places who really need help. 

I'm getting my CISSP next week, which means I'll be a certified security
engineer. And that is where I need to go. I need to get away from this place
and the bad feelings here. Its obvious my detractors are becoming louder and
nastier. I don't have the time or the energy to argue with these people any
longer. 

Yes, its a glorious day for TECHWR-L. That ridiculing bastard Andrew Plato
is
finally leaving. The reign of terror at TECHWR-L is over. After I post this
message I am killing my yahoo account and removing TECHWR-L from my
newsreader
client. If you want to email me from here on out you can email
anitian -at- yahoo -dot- com -dot-  Don't be offended if I don't reply immediately. 

Good luck folks. I wish you all well. 

Now, get back to work, you. 

Andrew Plato 


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are you using Doc-to-Help or ForeHelp? Switch to RoboHelp for Word for $249
or to RoboHelp Office for only $499. Get the PC Magazine five-star rated
Help authoring tool for less! Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr

Free copy of ARTS PDF Tools when you register for the PDF
Conference by April 30. Leading-Edge Practices for Enterprise
& Government, June 3-5, Bethesda,MD. www.PDFConference.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.