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Andrew Plato wrote:
>
> You know, one of the most irritating aspects of being a writer is having to
> deal with people who cannot handle truth or reality. You know the type -
> EVERYTHING offends them. They think they have the correct moral code and all
> of us should adhere to it. Their truth is THE truth.
Worst example I've encountered was a gov't purchasing agent who found the
terms 'male' and 'female' for describing connectors on computer cables
offensive. The terms are clear and I think they've been standard since roughly
Edison's time.
I had considerable difficulty keeping my response to this polite; the thought
of humouring her never entered my head.
> Just recently the marketing group of one of our clients mandated we remove this
> one section of the manual because it wasn't "appropriate." I argued that it
> was technically correct and necessary for users to know. This section
> explained a fundamental deficiency in how network monitoring systems work. I
> also explained that it was necessary to explain this issue so users could know
> WHY the software could not see things on other network segments. Removing it
> would mislead users into thinking the software could do something it could not.
>
> However, marketing was worried about "offending" people so we had to remove it.
It's a security product, right? I work in that area and I and many others quite
forcibly warn clients off products that fail to document their limitations. A
good discussion of limitations is a ***vital selling point*** in that market.
If I can see a limitation and get a clear impression that marketing are trying
to hide it, I'll do one of two things. Writing off the company as clueless and
not worth talking to, let alone buying from, is most likely. The alternative,
only for a clearly very interesting product, would be to find a way to bypass
marketing and talk to the techies so I could get honest answers.
