zeta.one
zeta.one
Blog about random technical stuff.

I often find myself explaining the same things in real life and online, so I recently started writing technical blog posts.

This one is about why it was a mistake to call 1024 bytes a kilobyte. It’s about a 20min read so thank you very much in advance if you find the time to read it.

Feedback is very much welcome. Thank you.

  • Bazoogle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    284·
    11 months ago

    You asked for feedback, so here is my feedback:

    The article is okay. I read most of it, but not all of it, because it seemed overly worded for the sentiment. It could have been condensed quite a bit. I would argue the focus should be more on the fact that there should be a standard in technical documentation, OS’s, specification sheets, etc. That’s the part that impacts most people, and the reason they should care. But that kind of gets lost in all the text.

    Your replies here come off as pretty condescending. You should anticipate most people not reading the article before commenting. Just pay them no attention, or reiterate what you already stated in the article. You shouldn’t just say “did you read the article” and then “it’s in this section of the article”. Just like how people comment on youtube before watching the video, people will comment on the topic without reading the article.

    Maybe they didn’t realize it was an article, maybe they knew it was an article and chose not to read it, or maybe they read it and disagree with some of the things you said. It’s okay for people to disagree with something you said, even if you sincerely believe something you said isn’t a matter of opinion (even though it probably is). You can agree to disagree and move on with your life.

    • wischi@programming.devOPEnglish
      72·
      11 months ago

      Thank you for taking the time to read it and your feedback.

      Your replies here come off as pretty condescending.

      That was definitely never my intention but a lot of people here said something similar. I should probably work on my English (I’m not a native speaker) to phrase things more carefully.

      You shouldn’t just say “did you read the article” and then “it’s in this section of the article”

      It never crossed my mind this could be interpreted in a negative way. I tried to gauge if someone read it and still disagreed or if someone didn’t read it and disagrees, because those situations are two different things, at least for me. The hint with the sections was also meant as a pointer because I know that most people won’t read the entire thing but maybe have 5min on their hand to read the relevant section.

      • Corr@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        Most native English speakers tend to take blunt statements/questions negatively due to the culture (especially true in north America).

        I enjoyed reading the article but I would agree with the above commenter that it may be a bit lengthy. Generally speaking writing tends to be more engaging in this format if it’s a bit more concise, both as a whole and on a per sentence basis.
        There was also a typo somewhere, I think “the” instead of another word, I read the article a few hours ago now so I can’t remember, sorry. I don’t think I would have guessed you were not a native English speaker from the article. Overall, I liked it and congratulations on putting something out there!

        • wischi@programming.devOPEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          Thank you for taking the time to read it ❤️. I’m currently out of office I’ll try to find and fix the typo you mentioned once I’m back, thanks for pointing it out.

      • Elias Griffin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        48·
        11 months ago

        I feel bad for you OP, I get this a lot and I’m totally gonna go there because I feel your pain and your article was fantastic! I read almost every word ;p

        This phenomena stems from an aversion to high-confidence people who make highly logical arguments from low self-confidence people who basically make themselves feel unworthy/inadequate when justly critiqued/busted. It makes sense for them to feel that way too, I empathize. It’s hard to overcome the vapid rewarding and inflation in school. They should feel cheated and insolent at this whole situation.

        I’ll be honest in front of the internet; people (in majority mind you, say 70-80% of Americans, I’m American) do not read every word of the article with full attention because of ever present and prevelant distractions, attention deficit, and motivation. They skip sentences or even paragraphs of things they are expecting they already know, apply bias before the conclusion, do not suspend their own perspective to understand yours for only a brief time, and come from a skeptical position no matter if they agreed with it or not!

        In general, people also want to feel they have some valid perspective “truth” (as it’s all relative to them…) of their own to add and they want to be validated and acknowledged for it, as in school.

        Guess what though, Corporations, Schools, Market Analysis, Novelists, PR people, Video Game Makers, Communications Managers and Small and Medium Business already know this! They even take a much more, ehh, progressive? approach about it, let’s say. That is, to really not let them speak/feedback, at all. Nearly all comment sections are gone from websites, comment boxes are gone from retail shops, customer service is a bot, technical writers make videos now to go over what they just wrote, Newspapers write for 4th graders, etc., etc.

        Nothing you said is even remotely condescending and nothing you said was out of order. Don’t defend yourself in these situations because it’s just encouragement for them to do it again. Don’t take it personally yourself, that is just the state of things.

        Improvise, Adapt, Re-engineer, Re-deploy, Overcome, repeat until done.