🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <> jonc@status.gen.nz (Jon Clarke) writes:
>mark@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Mark Davies) writes:
>> What has their gender got to do with anything?

> I would be a matter of common courtousy to identify who you are so 
> any return mail (snail mail -sent-) could be correctly addressed.

Curiouser and Curiouser. First Jon Clarke seems not to know that for a
long time that the standard business practice was to sign letters 

Yours <faithfully> <sincerely>

Initals, surname
signature

And now they seem to be unware that contemporary standard business
practice is to address letters to either,

Dear Sir/Madam, 

or 

Dear first name, surname

or 

Dear initals, surname, 


I would note that as someone with a gender neutral first name, I have have
received letters where the first one was quite different in tone from
subsequent gender known letters (need I mention that the first letter
assumed that I was female?). So I am a little suspicious of anyone
*demanding* to know the gender of another person just so they can address
a letter correctly. 

Clarke, you can't have it both ways. Either you accept that J.D Luff was
being polite by signing their letter in what they considered to be a
polite manner or you are insisting that they conform to your ideas of what
being polite is, which seem out of step with both previous business
practice and contempory business practice. 

Perhaps you should check with your secretary as to what they were taught
in school as to the right way to set out a business letter. 

I suppose you'll start insisting on RFC 822 compliance on all the letters
you get from now on. 

BTW, does Auckland have local usenet groups? Down here, psotings such as
yours would probably appear in wgnt.chat, I suppose that's because
Wellington people are more polite than Aucklanders. 

Net Pit Bull in Training.


--
Alex Heatley                                Computing Services Centre
Domain: Alex.Heatley@vuw.ac.nz              Victoria University of Wellington
Path: I don't support bang paths            P.O Box 600, New Zealand.