Subject: Sitting by the phone
Posted by: FatherSteve
Date: Jan 05 24
IMAGINE that you write and submit a single question to the New Questions Game. Your offering is scrutinized by an editor, blest, and placed in the queue. It goes "live" for anyone to play.
IMAGINE your question is pulled off-line and you receive a correction notice, forwarded by an editor, from a dyspeptic player who, when not occupied with FunTrivia, passes the time pulling the wings off of butterflies.
IMAGINE that this correction notice is voluminous, verbose, and vexatious. You consult the OED, the DSM-5, and the IMDB. You read peer-reviewed articles found in reputable academic journals. You read both DC and Marvel comics. You read the tarot, the I Ching, and make an haruspical examination of the entrails of a recently sacrificed animal. You scrutinize Bergey's Manual, the Merck Manual, and the Chilton Manual.
IMAGINE that you compose the most thoroughgoing refutation, disproof, and rebuttal of the contents of the correction notice and submit it (with a bit of a flourish as you poke the SEND button). And nothing happens. You wait and wait and notice one day that your question has been returned to the queue or to play. But not a whisper from the editor who dropped this cherry bomb in your shandy. Everyone knows that editors are extremely busy, disgracefully underpaid, and the frequent targets of undeserved abuse. Would it be too much to respond to the above-hypothecated single question writer with a message saying "bien dit" or "Ich stimme dir zu" or "10-22" or something/anything? It seems to me a matter of courtesy.
Posted by: FatherSteve
Date: Jan 05 24
IMAGINE that you write and submit a single question to the New Questions Game. Your offering is scrutinized by an editor, blest, and placed in the queue. It goes "live" for anyone to play.
IMAGINE your question is pulled off-line and you receive a correction notice, forwarded by an editor, from a dyspeptic player who, when not occupied with FunTrivia, passes the time pulling the wings off of butterflies.
IMAGINE that this correction notice is voluminous, verbose, and vexatious. You consult the OED, the DSM-5, and the IMDB. You read peer-reviewed articles found in reputable academic journals. You read both DC and Marvel comics. You read the tarot, the I Ching, and make an haruspical examination of the entrails of a recently sacrificed animal. You scrutinize Bergey's Manual, the Merck Manual, and the Chilton Manual.
IMAGINE that you compose the most thoroughgoing refutation, disproof, and rebuttal of the contents of the correction notice and submit it (with a bit of a flourish as you poke the SEND button). And nothing happens. You wait and wait and notice one day that your question has been returned to the queue or to play. But not a whisper from the editor who dropped this cherry bomb in your shandy. Everyone knows that editors are extremely busy, disgracefully underpaid, and the frequent targets of undeserved abuse. Would it be too much to respond to the above-hypothecated single question writer with a message saying "bien dit" or "Ich stimme dir zu" or "10-22" or something/anything? It seems to me a matter of courtesy.
1 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
Rowena8482 
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I feel your pain re the vexatious sending of tragic correction notes! That said, the only time I remember actually getting a response was when I have in to the base urge to "have my right of rebuttal" (grins evilly yet sheepishly) and replied to the player who sent said note with a veritable ode of scathing poetic verbosity, using the age old British technique of being Very, Very Polite, but handing them their behind on a platter. I was younger, and less tolerant, and it was a quiz I was fond of... I forget which editor ended up intervening, but they did so beautifully, with grace and aplomb. I rather think that they have so many notes to deal with that they're just thankful when one turns out not to need their input other than to "sign it off" so to speak. I most definitely hear you though! And may I congratulate you Sir, on your wonderful use of haruspicy in your post :-) Reply #1. Jan 05 24, 7:05 PM |
1 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
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