I don't see how his poor timing warranted the treatment he received.

WTH?

Rob was told to cool it. (S. came here and asked someone to tell Rob to cool it. Which, YMMV, I personally think was kind of theatrical overkill, but which isn't the point, just my opinion--I'd rather it all been handled in thread) Mixed in with all this is the whole is-he-or-isn't-he-debate (S as M), when M had been banned.

You want to sort through this all and tell me how it could have gone differently?

You want to sort through this all and tell me how it could have gone differently?

All right, tomorrow I will.

Tonight, Kevin Smith will be on Table For Five in fifteen minutes.

Rob was told to cool it.

And -- I feel this is the important point -- he did.

Mixed in with all this is the whole is-he-or-isn't-he-debate (S as M), when M had been banned.

Why do we put up with the whole torture of S & M?

(It had to be said.)

But please remember even if people are new here, they're not (hopefully) new to living among the human race. Of course you can say things to someone you've known a long time that a relative stranger could not say. I think a newbie should go to any community equipped with that basic bit of social knowledge.

I t heart Cindy.

...and now we've moved on to bad puns, which is both an integral part of the community and very, very silly.

Anyway. I think it's an important distiction between Rob and S that Rob apologized when asked, and S not only refused to apologize but went on to insult more people and denied the possibility that he may have offended at all. That, and the fact that we're all quite on edge because of ther recent influx, and on the defensive because of the recent suspension of mieskie, made a relatively minor incident blow up like Sunnydale High.

So what can we do to avoid this in the future? I think we might need a group Doblerization, to keep already-frayed tempers from flaring, and I think we need to remain polite, refrain from personal attacks, and try to clear up misunderstandings with a minimum of fuss.

And, for the record, I hope no new posters feel like they don't belong , or have been excluded in any way. I've seen a couple of posts start with things like "I'm not sure if my opinion counts because I'm new..." and that should absolutely not be the case. If you're willing to act like a part of the community, you should expect to be treated like one.

Thanks, Holli. You're a wise woman.

I think we might need a group Doblerization

I also t heart Holli.

...and now we've moved on to bad puns, which is both an integral part of the community and very, very silly.

Now I know I'm in the right place.

I have seen people reacting more strongly to certain posts than I ever would. I would not have been offended; clearly others were. My point the entire time has been with the response to offended parties.

The few times I've been able to respond to a post that offended me in a timely fashion (the curse of being a late night poster is that the discussion often begins and ends before I can get my $0.02 in) I try (I hope I try) to ask the poster for clarification, and then I explain my opposition to their position. If the response of the initial poster is to call me oversensitive, I don't think that's condusive to adult discussion.