I just got an email from a listener who was upset that I had edited the text of their email recommending Xubuntu as a pick. The short version is that he felt I unfairly editorialized by removing criticisms of Windows and leaving in the recommendation of Linux.

Here is his original email with the sender’s name removed just to leave that out of it.

Hey Tom,

Seems that just like you I've recently been inoculated against Satyamania and found that after trying Windows 10 I was really not that happy about the lack of progress coming from 7 as well as some of the foundational changes to Microsoft's new OS. Hence I've followed your lead by checking out the range of interesting Linux distributions over distrowatch.com and have been surprised about how smooth as well as functional they have become for the regular user. Moreover after settling on the fast and sparse but still customizable Xubuntu I quickly found matches for all my regular software over at the Arch Wiki as well as alternativeto.net and have been enjoying the unique features like enhanced privacy, vast customizability as well as comprehensive software updates. Hence I would wholeheartedly recommend Linux to all the other listeners out there and would love to hear a bit more about all the interesting stuff going on over at the Tux-side once you've converted over as well ;)

Keep up the great work!

[name removed]

Here’s what I reduced it to for time. Though I may have changed some phrasing when I read it on the show.

[name removed]: after settling on the fast and sparse but still customizable Xubuntu I quickly found matches for all my regular software over at the Arch Wiki as well as alternativeto.net and have been enjoying the unique features like enhanced privacy, vast customizability as well as comprehensive software updates. Hence I would wholeheartedly recommend Linux to all the other listeners out there

And here’s his response today:

Dear Tom,

I submitted the "find" as a test of my concerns about your editorilization on certain topics and based on the way you hacked up my text to remove certain very telling parts while still thinking it was OK to then put my name on it during the show, I have decided to terminate my Patreon support. Based on my episode reviews over the last few months mentioned in earlier correspondence and participation in the subreddit, I have still submitted a more clarifying review in the survey why this was the last drop in the bucket and although I have lost the passion to make this as good as it could be, I hope that you will take some of the comments to heart. I really thought that as an audience we were going to make this show something new and special, but going forward I will not easily be persuaded to again participate financially or with my time.

Best regards,
[name removed]

I definitely take this kind of feedback to heart. It’s always tricky when reducing the text of someone’s recommendation. I can see where he really wanted to make the frustrations with Windows a central part of his pick. My thoughts were that they were not relevant to informing someone about what the pick was but an argument can be made that the pick loses it’s motive in that case.

What do you think? AS a listener lots of people have expressed they find the picks long or uninteresting, hence my attempts to shorten them. But if it comes at the expense of the true meaning of someone’s message is that fair? Should picks and emails only be read in whole or not at all?

I have my own thoughts on this of course but I’d love feedback in helping to nail down the line even more firmly so we can avoid upsetting more people like this person in the future.