Hpapy St Pctriak's Day - sometimes you win...

Could having the courage to say something instead of nothing result in a better online experience for people?

It's tough sometimes being an editor, cos your job is pretty much criticising the work that other people do. (Cue sad violin music there)

Yes you're doing it to improve the ultimate project - Seth Godin refers to us as tweakers - but still someone's put a lot of hard work into a project (at times!) and here you are criticising it.

It's all about how you phrase something and communicate your idea, no matter how absurd or petty it seems I guess. You'd be surprised by how many times I've been given this book.

Is editing a valid job? I mean after all, we've all read (and been forwarded) the Cambridge research that it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Lovely. So much for paying attention in English class!

Still and all I like to think I'm passionate about what I do, and so as annoyed as I get about things (and you'll see lots of examples of this), when something like the below happens I just have to smile...

I've worked with the crew at St Patrick's Festival for three or four years, doing general volunteer work - skyfest marshalling, walking with the Parade, the Denny's Treasure Hunt ... really good fun.

I have a lot of respect for what they do. They put a huge amount of effort in and it's a great time for Ireland. I was in London last year but volunteered for 2007.

So when I got the email below from them recently, I was in two minds whether to do or say anything...

No it's not the capitals I'm complaining about (but good guess!) - it's the fact my email address was visible in the To field, along with a couple of hundred others...

I mean on the one hand I'm not employed by them, and the email may have been sent by a junior volunteer with a hundred million things to do... but on the other hand it did have my email address there as plain as day for anyone to read/copy/spam. Jonathan Jensen over at Sevendotzero recently posted about the same thing.

So I politely dropped a line suggesting they look at it for the next mailing. Very politely. Got a nice reply thanking me for the email. And lo and behold, yesterday evening... From info @ to info @...

Now it may not have been my advice or anything, but still, it could have been, and it looks more professional. The end project is a little better. I smiled anyhows.

If anyone can help the festival out, please do so. You'll have fun, guaranteed!