Re: Short STORIES by JMS

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:21:18 GMT, Amy Guskin <aisling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[...]
Patronizing, much? I'm a moderator here -- I _have_ to make time read all of
the messages.

You do realize that 99.999999% of the people here are not moderators? Why
would you presume that your way of reading a newsgroup is the way most
people read it, knowing you are a moderator? Maybe that was not your
intention, but it's exactly what you are doing when you say something
like, "that's not how *I* read this newsgroup," or "subject lines are
irrelevant to me."

[...]
Thirdly, there's nothing wrong with correcting someone, but your tone was
really much nastier than was warranted, IMHO. What you said:

That does not sound very humble to me. <<

Huh? What's _not_ humble about it? What does humility even have to _do_
with this? Not following you at all.

What do you think IMHO means? And if you don't know, why do you use it?

[...]
When you're posting on Usenet, people can't see your face. This is why it is
customary to follow up something you mean as a joke, or as a friendly gibe,
but that _could_ be considered as angry, or mean, with an appropriate
emoticon or "<g>."

Certainly, and I thought I was addressing an audience much smarter that
one that would depend *entirely* on whether "<g>" is included in the
message. As we've discussed before, we probably have a situation of poor
expression *and* poor interpretation.

Alternatively, you put something in your statement that could not be
construed as anything _but_ humor, to temper it, e.g., "Fix the f'ing subject
line before my organic spellchecker dissolves into oatmeal!"

You are responding to your selective quote, not the message. The message
actually was:

"Fix. The. F'ing. Subject. Line.

Thanks."

That may not be what you prefer, but it is "something."

Could it have been much more refined? Certainly.

My follow-up was not about the original poster, contrary to your
assumption. It was about everyone else who replied without fixing the
subject line. <<

Considering it was the original poster who originated the subject line, how
could anyone assume your comment was directed otherwise?

If I had been replying to the original poster, I would have done exactly
that [this would show in the refernces], and I would have left the "On
...., ... wrote:" line. Like I said, I figured people here knew how Usenet
works. Maybe the intention was not clear, of course, but it should have
been perfectly clear I was *not* replying to the original poster. Not to
mention--the original poster has no way to fix the subject line. Only
people posting follow-ups can do that, so making that request to the
original poster makes no sense whatsoever. I'm not certain a telepath is
required to figure this out. It may not be immediately obvious, but it's
not *that* obscure, either.

As for the tone, I would agree it's not warm and fuzzy, but I would
disagree with any characterization of any certainty. It's too short to
read too much into it and get to any definitive conclusion. <<

You might just want to check your mode of expression for the future. I have
a high tolerance and a sharp ear for sarcasm and humor, and I didn't get it.
[...]

That's a good idea, and I agree.

--
20060825 0945
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