bug#38002: Please remove this joke

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2019-11-01, at 21:30, nipponpost@airmail.cc wrote:

> A joke is not a bug: it has /absolutely/ nothing to do with the
> operation of the software; it isn't even /part/ of the software.

The Emacs manual explicitly claims that unclear documentation is a bug
(in the docs).  I think that you can say the same about a bad joke.

Fun fact: I am currently writing a book (a pretty serious textbook on
advanced mathematics, by three authors), and I've put a fair share of
jokes in it.  A reviewer asked to remove one of them.  I was slightly
sad, but I did it without much hesitation.  (Though both the reviewer
and me agreed that it was not _bad_ per se.)

> What it is, is a makers' mark.
> A signature.
> A piece of the author.
> "This is me, this is part of my personality"

You could apply exactly the same words to some bugs.  Yet, we remove
them.

Best,

--
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl