3 ms·

Why did they all start to replace "shut down" by "sunset"? It sounds stupid

dgunay 3y ago
As with most PR speak, it (on paper) makes it sound better. "Sunsetting" a service brings to mind these things: beauty, a gentle and gradual fade out, and the inevitability of natural phenomenon. Contrast with "shutting down" a service: a cold, calculated, and abrupt decision by a corporation. I don't think most people actually feel that companies owe it to anyone to keep services up long past their economic feasibility, but maybe somehow someone important felt some definition of bad about the language behind a shutdown announcement and came up with the term.
- labster 3y ago
  Just remember that after a corporation does sunsetting the long, cold, dark night follows.
omoikane 3y ago
Some people are very sensitive to certain words. I remember there was one time during a certain company all hands, where one guy said something along the lines of "employees violating these policies will be terminated." And then the person next to him immediately jumped in and said "fired." There was some puzzled look from the first person. This happened a few minutes later when the first person said "terminated" again, and the second person again followed up with "fired". The original speaker now understood what's happening: "I meant to say their employment will be terminated, I don't mean we were going to kill them or anything." I don't think I heard the word terminated used after that.
- nicbou 3y ago
  This is because you terminate employment, hopefully not people. Services do get shut down. It's the correct term. As a non-native speaker writing for non-native speakers, I use idioms, expressions and euphemisms very sparsely. They obscure the message and increase the mental burden on users. This is fine when you want to entertain your readers, but not when you want to communicate important information clearly.
nicbou 3y ago
Control group didn't react well to "taken behind the shed".
sph 3y ago
In all his wisdom, Orwell imagined Newspeak to be a politically-motivated effort, instead what has apparently become a cultural shift driven by corporate lawyers.
npteljes 3y ago
Especially stupid too, since they mean the actual end of the service by it, but sunsetting is the period before the shutdown, not the shutdown itself. So the Funimation sunset is right now.

As with most PR speak, it (on paper) makes it sound better. "Sunsetting" a service brings to mind these things: beauty, a gentle and gradual fade out, and the inevitability of natural phenomenon. Contrast with "shutting down" a service: a cold, calculated, and abrupt decision by a corporation. I don't think most people actually feel that companies owe it to anyone to keep services up long past their economic feasibility, but maybe somehow someone important felt some definition of bad about the language behind a shutdown announcement and came up with the term.

labster 3y ago
Just remember that after a corporation does sunsetting the long, cold, dark night follows.

omoikane 3y ago

Some people are very sensitive to certain words. I remember there was one time during a certain company all hands, where one guy said something along the lines of "employees violating these policies will be terminated." And then the person next to him immediately jumped in and said "fired." There was some puzzled look from the first person. This happened a few minutes later when the first person said "terminated" again, and the second person again followed up with "fired". The original speaker now understood what's happening: "I meant to say their employment will be terminated, I don't mean we were going to kill them or anything." I don't think I heard the word terminated used after that.

nicbou 3y ago
This is because you terminate employment, hopefully not people. Services do get shut down. It's the correct term. As a non-native speaker writing for non-native speakers, I use idioms, expressions and euphemisms very sparsely. They obscure the message and increase the mental burden on users. This is fine when you want to entertain your readers, but not when you want to communicate important information clearly.

nicbou 3y ago

Control group didn't react well to "taken behind the shed".

sph 3y ago

In all his wisdom, Orwell imagined Newspeak to be a politically-motivated effort, instead what has apparently become a cultural shift driven by corporate lawyers.

npteljes 3y ago

Especially stupid too, since they mean the actual end of the service by it, but sunsetting is the period before the shutdown, not the shutdown itself. So the Funimation sunset is right now.