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The recent exchange between Wolfgang Koberer and Michael Dorl, with a
somewhat-unwarranted intervention from Frank Reed, may perhaps lead to a
profitable discussion, so I've changed the threadname.

Let's assemble a few facts first, that can, I hope, be agreed on.

The topic of navigation is, in most respects, a technical matter, which
calls for clarity and precision of meaning.

Navlist has members from a variety of backgrounds and localities, with the
majority from North America. It includes many whose native language isn't
English (some of those reside in North America) and in general, all have to
get on, as best they can, in reading and writing English. We
English-speakers are privileged, in that others have to adapt to our
language. We have to do our best to follow what they say. And
non-Anglophones have to follow, as best they can, what's written in English.
In general, we make allowances and get along pretty well, between us all.

Sometimes, even the differences between American English and English English
raise problems for the likes of me, and presumably give create difficulties
to Americans who try to follow my own words, even if I am trying
ever-so-hard to make them clear. The biggest snag that I find is the
tendency of some posts to be written in folksy American idiom. That style of
write-as-you-speak may have its own charm, but can introduce difficulties of
understanding to those from outside that society. Those special-meanings are
seldom taught in a language school, and often fail even to cross the
Atlantic to Britain. And no doubt, the same thing happens in reverse. I try
to exclude cricket-metaphors, common in England, from my own postings, but
may not always succeed.

Another problem stems from those whose postings are replete with US Navy
jargon and acronyms, making no attempt to help outsiders to understand their
words. To me, some of those attempts at communication might just as well be
written in Greek. My guess is that even non-Naval American-speakers find
many such postings hard to follow, and give up.

Of course, some technicality is necessary, and indeed desirable, even though
many listmembers may struggle with it. In our field, we can't do without
trig, though no doubt some readers are turned off at the first sight of a
cosine. I suffer in the same way as soon as I see any matrix-mathematics.
But postings can't be "dumbed-down" to exclude such technical content. We
have to take in what we can.

===========================

Now, for the posting in question, [10901], by Joe Schultz, which exemplifies
several of these problems.

I have tried to follow what, exactly, Joe had meant in an earlier posting
when he used the idiom "sweet spot" in the context of positioning a fluxgate
compass. It was not a term I understood. It's given rise to a few emails,
back and forth, but even so, I'm still unclear about his meaning, and
awaiting a reply.

And the difficulty of understanding wasn't all one-way. Previously, I had
written in [10807]-
"I can see that a remote-reading compass can be put at the top of a mast
(with which warships bristle)..." and had thought those words would be
understandable, to Americans and others. But somehow, those words had no
meaning to Joe, who wrote-
"No idea what "warship bristle" means - an armchair term?".

Just as Wolfgang had difficulty with the meaning of the phrase "armchair
term", so did I, although I presumed it was intended to be somewhat
derogatory.

I took it, from the generally dismissive tone of the whole posting, that Joe
resented having his words questioned by others. This came up, particularly,
in this paragraph-

"Do steel vessels exist in your area, George?  Ferries, commercial fishing
boats, yachts, etc?  How about taking a trip down reality lane and finding
them?  I'll bet at least some have autopilots.  And at least some of those
use a fluxgate or equivalent as direction input.  How are their sensor
assemblies mounted in the real world?  You'll see, if you choose to look and
ask, the successful installations are pretty simple, and rarely high on the
mast as you (and Bowditch-2002) think are needed."

Most Navlist posters, with one or two exceptions, manage to say what they
wish without introducing such personalised unpleasantness. It wasn't
necessary. However, by now, I'm quite immune: such words provide only
encouragement. That paragraph required no response, relating to autopilots
as it did, in which there is not the same need for precise headings as in a
steering-compass, as was pointed out by another listmember. It was
irrelevant. So it got no response.

======================================

To sum up, the lessons I would draw are that posters should avoid personal
comments, avoid using language that's intended to offend, and when they
choose their words, bear in mind that they should be understandable to
others.

I hope other members will join in on this thread.

George.

contact George Huxtable, at  george@hux.me.uk
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.

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