Re: Humor, or manners impaired?

[Garret Romaine <GRomaine -at- MSMAIL -dot- RADISYS -dot- COM>]

Phebe politely asked:

          Garret, what do you mean by "avoid getting flamed off" of a
          list? My take on it is that if a list drifts too far into
          casual rudeness, the smarter people on it simply leave. If
          the list has value, we should try to avoid that.

I think all lists have an ebb and flow. Obviously, a writer's list, since it
is composed of writers, is going to have larger tides, but the general
content shifts in and out of appropriateness. On this list, and others, I
have seen people exercise bad judgment, bad habits, and bad tempers, and
after being politely, and then impolitely, lectured, one or two have left.
That's all I meant;  not that Eric has shut them down or kicked them off,
but that someone has committed some public faux pas and committed the cyber
equivalent of suicide. Or, taken their marbles and gone home, to quote from
the playground. I just want to make that point in my (low-paying) article --
that you have to behave yourself.

I *don't* think this list is rude, insensitive, callous, smarmy, sexist, or
any other pejorative. It is composed of people first, and second, some damn
fine writers;  some of the best around, if I can stretch. If we don't
tolerate attacks well, and are quick to write things we shouldn't write,
well, so be it. I wouldn't leave this list for all the fonts at Microsoft.

Garret Romaine
gromaine -at- radisys -dot- com

"This boy was brought up in a time of blood and dyin', and never questioned
a bit of it. Never turned his back on his folks or his kind. I rode with
him. I got no complaints."

  - The Outlaw Josie Wales