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Subject:Re: No users! From:Tracy Boyington <tracy_boyington -at- OKVOTECH -dot- ORG> Date:Tue, 9 Feb 1999 11:31:05 -0600
> What's wrong with 'user'? That's the standard term, it's what 99.99...%
> of the rest of the world calls a computer user. Why has your company
> decided to single-handedly redefine the English language?
You know, there are only two industries that refer to their customers as
"users"... ;-)
> My dictionary and thesaurus do not give "user" as a synonym for
> "client".
But if the person buying your software is your client, and the person
using your software is your user, wouldn't the user and client be the
same person? It's probably a moot point anyway -- Bev's statement that
"the decision has already been made" gave me the impression that *she*
had not made the decision and was not in a position to change it.
> There's also the fact that "client" has a specific meaning in
> computing that has nothing to do with users.
This is clearly a case of Know Thy Audience. Most people, when hearing
the word "client," do not think of the specific computer sense first.
Try to think of the people you know who aren't programmers or engineers.
;-) I'd be willing to bet that most people, even those who use computers
on a daily basis, do not even *know* the specific computer sense. Nor do
they need to. Let's hope whoever made this decision also considered
this.
