David Gerard-2 wrote:
On 09/07/07, George Herbert george.herbert@gmail.com wrote:
I think that not using templates would be a problem. The templates are there for a reason - to make at least part of the response standardized, in a goes-on-the-record-and-reviewable manner.
[snip] That doesn't make it somehow not bureaucracy replacing communication. Because a template only communicates "you have been processed." There's clearly not a human behind it, or there's a human pretending to be a machine.
On the other hand, using templates does take the personal sting out of it: "you broke the rules, here's your ticket, nothing personal, just doing my job".
Making up the text from scratch gives it the edge which can lead to personal grudges.
Some people are better at communicating than others: are we to stop people who are very good at catching vandalism because their prose style isn't quite up to the mark for warning the abuser in a sufficiently stylish manner?