should there be an item in the FAQ about how to make pseudo-HTML tags? Specifically the arrows (don't know their names in English)?)

Rebecca and I call them "Sharon" and "Tracey" if that helps.

John, MrPointy was linked at TWoP and ia a headline at www.Whedonesque.com

You know, some guy is freaking out over in Firefly thread because I refered to Buffy's audience as "six" people.

I'm not trying to cause a ruckus, but if someone's going to take every word that literally, I can't think but what I could ever do to fix save never posting again.

Jeez, the guy thought I actually meant Buffy had an audience of six, as opposed to my simply exaggerating the relative smallness of the ME audience.

Can a Stompey Foot help me out here? Maybe I should quit posting and go back to lurking?

Can a Stompey Foot help me out here? Maybe I should quit posting and go back to lurking?

Just signed on. Looks like it's mosly over.

Went back and read that, and, eh, I think people overreacted. On the other hand--and please don't take offense at this, Schmoker--you have a way of phrasing things that pushes buttons. I don't think you MEAN to do it, it just does. I don't want to criticize, and I DO believe there was some oversensitivity there, but I figure it's best to be upfront about it, and hey, if you're aware of it, maybe you can adjust it.

It's cool, Victor. Criticize. I don't mind being offended.

But you aren't offending me, and I did kind of just concede cheesily to get it over with. I don't mean to push buttons, and I will usually apologize when I do.

But, boy, that 'six people' comment, I can't see how that can be taken literally unless you are just looking to be offended. :)

Rebecca and I call them "Sharon" and "Tracey" if that helps.

It's a very long story.

In other topics: One of the oft-lamented restrictions of online speech is the tone of voice bits. (Also that you can't move to the other side of the room when someone's tone of voice itself annoys you. But we get some, and we lose some, eh?) Different people "hear" text differently; and for someone whose maybe caustic sense of humor relies very much on the listeners understanding things about them, the loss of conveying some of this information through tone of voice can be problematic. I can think of several posters here I love dearly, but if someone who didn't know them came in to one of the semi-private conversations we've had in the past they might get upset because that person's text read as so caustic.

Are my sentences convoluted enough? Schmoker, what I mean is that it can be hard to supply, mentally, the humorous tone of voice to the text of someone you're reading, when you don't know them already.

Which is why, I believe, it's often a good idea to lean more to the polite, less-hard-to-misinterpret side, as default, when you're dealing with people you've just met or don't know too very well.

Hell, I've had times when I misinterpreted comments more supposedly-obviously-"out there" than "six people", by people I already knew and loved. Because I'm a big stupid idiot, maybe, but I'm not a non-average reader of this board. It's just hard, sometimes. Please don't assume maybe that your readers will always get when you're joking.

But, boy, that 'six people' comment, I can't see how that can be taken literally unless you are just looking to be offended. :)

Perhaps, and sometimes people are, whether they realize it or not. You, however, have a fairly sharp wit and a sarcastic streak, and I fear people may be reading it wrong, assuming you're "attacking," which, personally, I don't feel you are. Not much that can be done about it, except to take each situation as it comes. I'm sure it'll all smooth out as you become used to us and vice versa.

What vistor said. Also, I think we're a bit jittery about new posters right now -- I've felt like there have been a couple of cases recently where people came pretty down hard on someone new, basically for voicing a minority opinion. I'm hopng this is something we'll get over fairly soon.

BTW, I've put the mythology FAQ out for comment on a few other forums. I'm going to collect comments over the weekend and have an edited one up on Monday. If someone else wanted to HTML-ize it, they would become my Bestest Buddy.

I'll take care of the htmlifying, once it's done (or close to done).

As a community, I think we take civility very seriously. However, after a fairly long time with only the occasional newcomer, it's easy to "know" what someone else means, even if to an outside reader, they would seem obnoxious. I mean, Elena could call someone "Willow-loving FREAK!" and it wouldn't tend to be a problem. Meeting new friends, it's a little trickier setting the right tone.

I'm not sure what my point here is.