Doing the needful

[John]

I have been getting a surge of e-mails lately asking to join the ScriptBasic forum and contribute enhancements to the project. When asked to send a DIFF of the changes, I never hear back again. The following is the key phrase used in all the e-mails.

Kindly consider this mail and do the needful.

[kryton9]

What does that mean? Is it spam?

[John]

You would think these programmers (developing AI bots) from India would use convincing English to get access to the forum. If I send an e-mail asking specific questions about their interest in SB, I never hear back. Doing the needful made me chuckle.

[kryton9]

That reminds me of another famous translations gone badly that became a legendary phrase "All your base are belong to us."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us