[Foundation-l] Flagged Protection update for April 29

William Pietri william at scissor.com
Sat May 1 00:32:22 UTC 2010


On 04/30/2010 05:19 PM, Thomas Dalton wrote:
>> I'm intrigued by the notion that you don't have to be nice to people
>> >  that are paid to deal with you. Since I gave the foundation a 70%
>> >  discount from my normal rates, perhaps you can shoot for a mix of 70%
>> >  courtesy and 30% head-biting?
>>      
> I don't do "nice", to staff or volunteers. I make the point that I
> feel needs to be made. This does tend to annoy a lot of people, but
> despite that a large number of people actively choose to work with me
> because they realise that my approach gets good results.
>    

Ok. For what it's worth, I think you're creating a false dichotomy; the 
making of a point and the grace with which it's made are, in my 
experience, mostly unrelated. But that's your problem, not mine.

You should keep in mind that it definitely takes me more time and more 
energy to deal with non-nice requests. It's like that for most 
consultants I know. So your preferred working style costs the foundation 
more and makes it a bit less likely that people with other options will 
choose to work with the foundation. The more community members eschew 
politeness, the stronger the effect.

William




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