OT: Public Apology

[Shawn Brock]

David,
thanks for your apology though I see know reason for you to apologize.  You just stated the facts.  Its vary true that we do have some limitations with screen readers.  Perhaps the biggest limitation of all though is the most basic, we do not have the constant reinforcement that the sighted world around us has.  You drive down the street and read signs, you eat in restaurants and read the menu and so on.  If that is shut out for a person it can make a difference in how they communicate.  Don't get me wrong I am in no way making excuses for my bad spelling or grammar.  We have a lot of blind authors and journalists in the world now and I'm sure they spell better than I do...  They are more focused on that line of work though and I would love to listen to them tune a piano.  I'm sure they can't!  One of the things that I try to avoid is judgment of others...  For example: we have tuners who need hearing aids.  To most people that just sounds backwards, how can you tune a piano if you have inadequate hearing?  That's something I don't know anything about, how ever I have listened to the tunings of technicians who use hearing aids and thought the pianos sounded wonderful!  The point is, I don't know how they do it.  Just like some people don't understand how I do things.  To me this list is for piano technology and that is all its about.  I didn't know two mistakes could cause such an uprising.  For that I'm sorry.  I'm sorry that people have nothing better to talk about.  I have a technician friend who once said "Some of those people on the list can't have much work.  If they did they would not have time to email back and forth about a bunch of trivial crap!"  Now I have to wonder if that's true.  I'm not the work police though so its not my job to find out.  I don't mind corrections from people but what's good for the goose is good for the gander.  Lots of times I could have corrected people on some of the dumb ideas they have had on this list, but I have kept myself in check and my fingers in my pockets.  Someone thought it was good that the Guild had a person to keep watch on the list and correct people, but I must tell you, that's not what the Guild or this list is about for most of us.  If that was all we had to offer we wouldn't have a Guild or a list, because no one would join for that.  Let me be clear, I am not speaking for the PTG or all of its members, just myself and a few other members who have emailed me.  I just wish we could get along and talk about something more meaningful to our lives than this.  Yes, I know I am devoting time to this and I know this is a lengthy message.  I thought sense so many people had devoted so much time to it perhaps I should as well.  It seems to be of a lot of importance to some folks.  So now I hope some of you know where I stand!  I'm not perfect and I know for damn sure nun of you are either!  Maybe I should speak up on the misspellings that I catch along with some of the preposterous idiotic ideas that come up on the list.  No, I'm better than that. Regards,

Shawn Brock, RPT, bad speller 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Porritt, David 
  To: Pianotech List 
  Sent: Monday, September 01, 2008 12:22 PM
  Subject: RE: OT: Public Apology


  I can't believe I sent this to the whole list when I intended it to be a private message to my friend Les.  

   

  My whole point was that it is easy to criticize but harder to understand people's situation.  I've sent a private apology to both men mentioned below.  When you are "reading" emails with a screen reader, and "writing" emails with a dictation program that you can't visually check, you will have some misspelled words, incorrect homonyms, and words a dictation program doesn't understand correctly.  I admire these guys for participating fully in the list in spite of these added opportunities for errors.

   

  The truth is, my spelling is quite bad but I'm saved by automatic spelling and grammar checkers and I'll bet most of us have that advantage.

   

  More understanding, less criticism.

   

  dp

   

   

  David M. Porritt, RPT

  dporritt at smu.edu

   

  From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Porritt, David
  Sent: Monday, September 01, 2008 10:53 AM
  To: l-bartlett at sbcglobal.net; Pianotech List
  Subject: RE: OT: Public Apology

   

  Les:

   

  I wrote privately to the "spelling police" that Shawn Brock (who had the bad spelling) is visually impaired.  I think uses a screen reader to get his email.  These guys try to spell phonetically and do have a hard time (English is not very phonetic) .  They also struggle with homonyms like call/caul, sew/so etc. Don Wiggant is another blind guy who writes like an uneducated person, but when I saw that he is blind, I begin to understand.

   

  I hope all is well there in the Big H.

   

  dp

   

   

  David M. Porritt, RPT

  dporritt at smu.edu

   

  From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Leslie Bartlett
  Sent: Monday, September 01, 2008 10:04 AM
  To: Pianotech List
  Subject: Re: OT: Public Apology

   

   

        My only justification for being a self-appointed pædant is that list members who do not have English as their first language may have difficulty interpreting words which are nearly correct. Or maybe I'm just in a bad mood today :-|

         

  Thank you for being spelling police. For a group of persons who wish to be credited with high intelligence and understanding of basic communication, there is agreeably a great deal of poor spelling and grammar- of which I am sometimes at fault. I think the PTG is fortunate to have those who attempt to aid in the raising of consciousness regarding the lack of credibility given to one who uses the language poorly or incorrectly.  So, again, thank you.  I appreciate such awareness.
  les bartlett
  houston
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20080901/20f97255/attachment.html