Re: Is this too Offensive for a manual?

[David Neeley <dbneeley -at- oddpost -dot- com>]

Again, that depends. If the software in question is, say, a database mining application which exists for the specific purpose of detecting honesty, efficiency, and the like--then yes, you *might* say so in the documentation. 
  
This has been my point all along...there are specific situations in which a "hard and fast" rule is not necessarily applicable. 
  
For example: I took a tour of a software company three or four years ago that was producing a product to detect exactly this sort of problem within their target industries. It was aimed at, among others, security officers and loss control specialists within these organizations. They *advertised* the software for this purpose. 
  
No one needs to imply in making such statements that these are applicable to any given person or persons within the employee base--or even that it applies to *any* of them. Surely, the employers hope not! However, having software "trip wires" to indicate early in the game that these things are not being done would be very valuable. 
  
Or another example from the Dallas news media this week: It turns out that among the 140 building inspectors on the City of Dallas payroll, so far it has been determined in the month of September alone there were at least 200 citations written with no evidence of the inspectors having ever been to the buildings in question. In fact, there is ample evidence that they were *not* there at all in at least this many cases...and thus far, only the records of five or six employees have been studied in detail. 
  
Wouldn't such a program have been a good idea for however long the supervision has been so lax? Now, the city faces tens of millions of dollars in probable lawsuits from citizens who were cited in thousands of cases--I understand a class action is already planned. 
  
So--despite the many opinions to the contrary, it may be precisely in line for such terms to be in documentation for certain kinds of applications. The fact that we set up a software sentinel to detect if such things are taking place does not mean that we want them to happen or even that we expect them to happen. It merely means we understand enough about human nature and past history to be watchful. 
  
And, I must again repeat, for a low-level line manager to be told with no uncertain terms that particular indicators may indicate that an employee is not performing as expected, or that the readings may in fact be faked, is often a good thing. At that level of supervision, the sophistication and education of the average supervisor may not be particularly great. In fact, most of them will probably have come through promotion from being meter readers--and the standards for the job are rudimentary at best. 
  
At the same time, it would be an unusual application that would call for such blunt terminology--but not outside the realm of possibility. 
  
David 
  
'I wonder... if I am working on some of the new upgrades to financial 
software in the US, can I use phrases like: 
  
- Arising from amoral, thieving corporate officers... 
  
- Prevents CEOs from stealing widows' pensions... 
  
- Reward integrity and honesty, punish fraud and theft... 
  
Probably not. 
  
Mike O."

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