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Kevin McLauchlan asked:
>So, now I'm wondering if any of the rest of you ever
>takes it upon yourselves to explain/annotate such
>boilerplate text in your user docs.
Depends on who generated the boilerplate.
* If it came from the government, I don't change it. I used to document a
system created
under contract to the Department of Defense. They took an extraordinarily
dim view of
ordinary folk changing their boilerplate.
* If it has legal implications, I defer to the company
keeper-of-liabilities.
* If the first two restrictions don't weed out the boilerplate, I'd be
inclined to edit.
-----Original Message-----
From: KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com
[mailto:KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, July 06, 2001 1:00 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Clarify Agency Notices? ... no, really
Dear Whirlers,
Ok, here's one for the books...
badump-bump...
:-)
But seriously folks, yesterday, a new Product Mangler
actually READ an entire user guide and then (among
other things) asked me about the FCC "B" boilerplate
text. Questions like, why is ours a Class B device,
isn't "A" better than "B"? and "Do we really want
our doc to refer to a 'residential installation', when
all our customers are businesses?" And like that.
I explained that:
a) bureaucrats are not actually from the same planet,
so they don't have the same "first-ordinal-is-best"
expectations that we humans do (you know, "We're
number one!" "Mom, I got an 'A'!!" "These are A-1
/u/s/e/d/ pre-owned vehicles." and,
b) residential interference requirements are a tougher
standard than industrial, so that's the standard we
aim for and,
c) yes, the FCC actually wants us to word it that way,
if we're going to make any claims about compliance
with their strictures.
So, now I'm wondering if any of the rest of you ever
takes it upon yourselves to explain/annotate such
boilerplate text in your user docs.
This PM person ain't no dummy. She's just unfamiliar
with some aspects of this biz. So, if she had such
questions and holes in her knowledge, might not many
of our customers suffer the same wonderings?
Waddya all say?
Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake you?
Of course, a few minutes later I had to explain about
that lonesome CE mark, with no text at all to keep it
company...
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