Conversation: Is The Explosion In Blogs About Testing A Positive Thing, Even If We Don’t Agree With The Message

Elizabeth Fiennes: Yes it is as it promotes discussion
Markus Gärtner: yes
Marlena Compton: Visibility is good.
trisherino: yes absolutely!
trisherino: Free flow of ideas. If people don’t agree with the message, it will at least get them talking.
Rob Lambert: for sure
Marlena Compton: +1 for that
Markus Gärtner: it helps in bouncing ideas around, thereby making our profession even more professional
Elizabeth Fiennes: and understanding the views of someone you do not agree with help with engaging with them
Markus Gärtner: ok, got a topic for the weekend
Elizabeth Fiennes: which is a great skill in testing
trisherino: Elizabeth: good point, that’s a good testing skill
Marlena Compton: There’s an American saying, “I disagree with what you say, but will die defending your right to say it.”
Elizabeth Fiennes: exactly
Elizabeth Fiennes: except with that particular author, I might just take a Chinese burn on their behalf but not much more
Elizabeth Fiennes:
Markus Gärtner: so, to wrap up on self-education in testing is worthy, maybe we need a different teaching model, besides universities…and certification is just paper
Elizabeth Fiennes: that’s the masters you get after the degree from the university of life?
Markus Gärtner: blogging helps to have ideas floating around, and improves our argumentation skills, argumentation skills? Or discussion skills?
Markus Gärtner: oh, and conferences are great to connect and get new ideas
trisherino: It forces you to form ideas properly into words, which I think helps with learning.
Rob Lambert: lol we’re off again
Elizabeth Fiennes: Engagement skills
Rob Lambert: engagement skills – interesting.
Rob Lambert: Takes it to the level of a two way conversation with empathy on each side
Marlena Compton: We need much more engagement skills and less debate skills in testing.
Markus Gärtner: +1 Marlena
trisherino: @Marlena completely agree
trisherino: Written engagement skills even. Which can be difficult.
Elizabeth Fiennes: well, 20-ish years ago, we all started off on IRC and it was mental the flame wars that took place
Elizabeth Fiennes: then we graduated to nicer message boards, webpages, IM chats, forums and blogs
Elizabeth Fiennes: and the same flaming is still going on by newbies to the formats
Elizabeth Fiennes: whereas us old hats know that is not the way to engage
Rob Lambert: oh how there have been some flame wars in testing
Rob Lambert: what is the best way to engage?
Marlena Compton: so….
Rob Lambert: when faced with distance
Elizabeth Fiennes: stepping back
Elizabeth Fiennes: asking yourself, is this someone looking for a flamed response, is it worth my time to give it, will me ripping his head off (metaphorically) in a public forum achieve anything?
Elizabeth Fiennes: and if the answers are yes, no and no, then go and find something else to read that is not going to make me go all 1995-IRC on their post
trisherino: I think when it comes to online debates, we have the advantage of being able to take the time to calm down before writing a response, unlike in some face to face scenarios.
Rob Lambert: @trish – indeed
Marlena Compton: twitter, on the other hand.
Rob Lambert: @trish – in our daily jobs it can also be prudent to take a step back and think about things. Especially in heated meetings
trisherino: @Rob That’s true as well, if possible.
Elizabeth Fiennes: thing is, I think that slowing yourself down online teaches you the value of holding back your reactionary self and once your embrace that, you can apply it in real life (without realising it) as well
Thomas Ponnet: A couple of thoughts from me after reading the quite substantial discussion. I didn’t read it with a glass of wine as Elizabeth suggested, I didn’t think that would improve the reply..