On Apr 8, 2013, at 9:38 AM, Melinda Shore
<melinda(_dot_)shore(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com<mailto:melinda(_dot_)shore(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com>>
wrote:
Well, the timing of this strikes me as one of those "oh" moments, following as
quickly on the heels of the diversity discussion. Not so much because of
language and culture issues (although those are unavoidable) but because it
strikes me as kind of unhealthy to use the April Fool RFCs as a tool to
partition the audience into "us" and "them".
Sure, that's clearly a problem to think about. But my point was just that you
can see it as something to divide us, or something to bring us together; what's
important is that it in fact be used for the latter, and not the former. But
the essence of inclusiveness is not that we eliminate differences; if we did
that, diversity wouldn't do us much good. The essence of inclusiveness is
being open and welcoming to diversity, and having, if not a sense of humor
about differences, at least a tolerance for them. Suppressing in-jokes is
just as bad as excluding people who don't appreciate them.