Why I use the term "suck" in blog posts?
Colleagues have suggested gentler, less "declasse'" terminology, might be better.
I could use the terms: "bad","ineffective","unusable","bug ridden","insufficient","poorly conceived",
"inefficient","inconsistent","bug rich","pile of detritus","abomination","affront to all that is good and true",...
I use "suck" because it has a certain level of emotion attached to it, without being profane 
To me "suck" has both frustration and hope attached to it.
Software (or anything else) that I attach the adjective "suck" to tends to have the following qualities:
- grossly missing the mark (the DESPAIR factor)
- we thought it would be significantly better.
- we seem to have tried to do better
- we aren't proud of what we've built
- our competitors "seem" to being doing it much better then we
- we believe we could do MUCH better (the HOPE factor)
So there term "suck" carries with it despair and hope, effort and yet missing the mark, willingness to admit our shortcomings.
I struggle to find a more palatable term that carries that emotion and message.
"Significantly missing the expectations of customers, management, the team and the industry"
just doesn't resonant the same as:
"our stuff really sucks."
.
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