RE: ethics, morals in documentation?

[Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com]

What's really interesting to me about this thread is that a very similar
subject came up on a web list I'm on recently.

A web developer said, in effect, "OK, so I learned my trade working behind
the scenes making sure people don't have to wait long to get pictures of
undressed women in compromising poses. Does that make me unfit to work in
any other sector of the economy?"

His basic tale, backed up by some other experiences recited by others, was
that once a "normal" company heard that he worked at a porn site, they were
completely uninterested in hiring him. This, even though the very nature of
his industry meant that he was very skilled at building websites that
delivered their content efficiently despite a high hit rate. A designer
that had built an e-commerce website that downloaded the bandwidth
equivalent of a fully-functional copy of Word every few seconds, on a 7x24
basis, couldn't find a job because of the industry in which he currently
worked!

I hadn't thought much about it until I heard his story, but that kind of
blacklisting is quite probably *why* our anon. friend's company is removing
their name from the products...it could be as much, perhaps more, about
self-preservation as about the hypocrisy of taking the money while
maintaining distance. In today's world, it seems to matter more *where* you
got your knowledge and experience as *what* you can do with them.

Given that sort of attitude, I'm not surprised at his company's
"anonymizing" the product, and I certainly don't hold it against them. As
for whether I'd work on the project...I have to say I don't know. It's easy
to declaim on the subject, when my answer really doesn't impact me in the
least, either way. I'm against porn, don't make any mistake about that, and
if working on the project caused my nose to be rubbed in the, um, end
product, I'd  certainly decline.

But my understanding of the original statement was that there would be no
involvement with porn by any of the project team; they'd just be involved
in modifying the existing docs. I certainly wouldn't condemn anyone for
making either choice. If you like the company you work for, you have
something invested in the quality of the product they put out. Abandoning
that isn't an easy choice.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
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