Title: Editorial

Sometime soon after I started as C Vu Editor a member wrote in enquiring (well let me be polite) about why I did it. I do not remember what my response was then, but I think it is time to return to the question and attempt to provide a more general answer from which we can all profit. Let me rephrase the question:

'Why does anyone contribute time and intellectual property to ACCU?'

The answer cannot be that it is for money because there isn't any. We even bill those reviewing books for us with a contribution to the direct costs (postage, telephone calls etc.) of administering that part of ACCU's work. Writing feature articles for ACCU publications may even be costing authors money that they might have received from one of the commercial magazines. And no member should be in any doubt that much of the material we publish (perhaps with a little added polish in some cases) would be worthy of a place in such publications. More than once I have seen Overload bracketed with 'C++ Report' and 'The C/C++ Users Journal' as being worth their subscriptions. The people making those statements were among the very top layer of C++ gurus and they did so publicly.

My feelings when reading such recognition give much of the answer to why we do it. Seeing our work appreciated adds to our sense of self worth. That is something beyond mere money. Yes, financial reward can be useful (indeed some paid for work is essential to our individual survival) but without recognition we need much more money. As an aside, I think one of the current problems in the UK is that we have stopped valuing many who work for us. If you no longer communicate that they are valued, nurses, teachers, and even your local policeman stop valuing themselves and start delivering on a basis of the degree of financial reward. No society could possibly pay such people enough to compensate for some aspects of their work.

Let me refocus on the microcosm that is ACCU. Every member who contributes to our publications has to be motivated by something other than money. True that some may use writing features for C Vu as a nursery in which they can hone their writing skills before going commercial, others may perceive that writing for C Vu or Overload will enhance their professional reputations. But that cannot apply to those that, for a variety or reasons, write under pseudonyms.

I was surprised to discover how many other contributors to magazines do exactly what I do when an issue plops through the letter box; they read their own article first. Being paid for my column in EXE is useful but the warm feeling of achievement at seeing my work in print is even better. On the other side there is a very definite sense of disappointment with myself when I realise that some error has crept through all the editorial filters. Those who follow up what I have written further enhance my feeling of self worth. I am sure I am not alone in that.

I have written about my reactions, but this editorial was triggered by two things, one was reading a book 'The Pragmatic Programmer' (review next issue, but buy it anyway) and the other was the negative response of some people to the last issue of C Vu.

The negative response is a little akin to being docked part of ones salary for failing to meet an employers expectations. Where the book comes in is that the author when writing about communicating emphasises that this involves presenting things in such a way that others will listen. He then goes on to say that that includes learning to listen. If I feel that my feeling of self worth has been lessened by what seems from my perspective, to be others focusing on what went wrong without any balancing consideration of what went right, how much more so must it be for many others who make their own contributions to ACCU without any recognition or appreciation.

I once declined to publish an article submitted to C Vu and I once gave a very bad review to a book written by a member. Each of those instances cost ACCU a member but do you think I should have done differently? Should members who write books be treated differently from non-members who do so? Is C Vu really the place for an article purporting to relate regions of the human brain to syntactical constructs in C++?

Those are extreme examples where I felt that I had no choice but to do something that inevitably would lead to a lowering of someone else's sense of self worth. However I am aware that I sometimes (perhaps you think often) treat C Vu rather like a seminar and interject corrections, clarifications and personal per-spectives into the work of others. I recall how much I hate telephones because you cannot see the twinkle in the other person's eye, nor can you see the frown or the body language that shouts loudly 'you did not listen to me.' I will try to remember that in the future. I value, as I am sure do you, every item submitted for publication.

To answer the original question, each of us contributes to ACCU because we expect it to add value to our sense of self worth. If the responses we get lower that then we eventually decide we are being underpaid. Of course each of us will make mistakes that need to be corrected, the more we contribute the more the potential for error. What should disturb us is when no one either notices the mistake or can be bothered to correct it.

Finally, I will leave you with a thought about tolerance. Tolerance isn't allowing others to be wrong, it is accepting that they might be right.