I request your replies…

Thankyou..

However, there are topics or professions that will be somewhat exclusionary simply by not being interesting to those that have not acquired the education or skills necessary to participate in the topics at hand.

All that said, I’m not an elitist. When the situation warrants, it can just be plain fun to crawl into the mud and sling the dirt around with the rest of the crazy fools out there. It’s the Internet, roll your sleeves up every now and then and duke it out! As long as you aren’t acting in a professional role, it doesn’t really mean anything.

I try not to swear unless the subject really, REALLY deserves it, and only then in very small amounts. Obscenity peppered posts lost their ZING very quickly.

I do use real e-mail adresses in the off chance a post will resonate with someone of like mind. I have met a few interesting people that way. But I do NOT want my phone to ring or my mailbox to contain anything related to my on-line grumblings.

By the way, Jeff…have you ever had to deal with any “stalkers” who show up in Real Life wanting to be pals?

If you aren’t willing to take responsibility for your opinions why should I spend any time reading them?

I just pointed out elsewhere that some poster was acting like a troll by answering everyone else on the thread multiple times. I didn’t even mention who it was. The result he rated my warning about feeding trolls a zero. Really a brave soul (or perhaps just a social misfit).

The same thing has happened here on occasion, but either Jeff cleans up the droppings or it tends to dry up pretty quickly.

Usenet was the originator of troll behavior, but the reader software permits viewers to filter out this type of behavior using a variety of criteria. If blog software would get more functionality (like, ignore this poster) many of the netiquette issues would resolve themselves.