Even the mealy-mouthed "I'm sorry you feel that way" kind!

Yeah, and especially because of the whole no-visuals, no-tone-of-voice thing on the internet. You can type "I'm sorry," while rolling your eyes and muttering under your breath, if you're committed to maintaining a civil tone.

I think the disconnect I'm seeing is that people don't seem to consider their responses to Zoe as rude. I'm afraid I feel differently.

Oh, they are rude, all right. The problem is, they are rude *now*. In the beginning, when Zoe was newer here, people answered her politely.

I would like to remind people that the first rule of backchannel is don't mention backchannel.

I would like to Amen this. Because frankly, if I post something somewhere that is not here, and it's not publicly available, I'm not going to be tolerantly amused if it suddenly appears in a public forum.

I equate it with the netiquette of not posting private e-mail.

But, she apparently wants to stay. I have seen posts from her that seemed Warning-worthy, but never til later, I just don't necessarily think this latest thing is.

I don't think this incident is either. In all honesty, I totally see Victor's point.

What I am curious about and would like to know is what happens when the pattern of behavior is at the low-level-radioactive irritant?

What I don't like is the community response and frustration. She's easy to skim, but all of the responses are not because they are made by people I like and respect.

See for me Schmoker was an easy one. And I wasn't offended by him. But it was the community response to him that made it difficult for me.

it's easier to say, "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you" and work it out than to ignore or be snippy and let resentment grow.

Yes, this. God knows I've apologized while rolling my eyes and holding my nose often enough. It's just something One Does. It's Universal Social Glue.

And I'll stop with the caps now.

I think the obvious solution to this is MARCIE. ASAP.

(Me? Help to code? Hrm... I do PHP, but honestly I'd be embarrassed if I had to have other people (not to mention the One And Only ita) read my code. I'll have to think whether I offer myself formally to code it).

(Sorry, long day. Geeked out).

okay folks, here we go again. I'm going to provide a few things I've noticed, and let you do your own math.

1) Zoe Ann gets disability payments 2) She alternates between lucidity and nonsense 3) She often overreacts. 4) She has mentioned being in the hospital 5) She has mentioned taking psychiatric drugs.

{Having succeeded in rolling over Zoe Ann's alter ego makes it back into the living room, where the computer is still on...}

post 8305 in Angel 2

I'm afraid I don't have a handy solution on how to deal with her, except to ignore her or at least ignore her occasional nastiness. Also, in the Unamerican thread linked above, she did apologize.

But we don't have MARCIE Paul. Yes it's a solution. But why is the telling of a patron who persists in trying to irritate (and let me tell you, this post Zoe Ann "Angel 2: No Time for Losers" Apr 11, 2003 3:23:08 pm EDT is definitely being read as aggressive by me) that the behavior is unacceptable, in an official capacity not okay?

Why did we warn Schmoker who received the same responses as Zoe, but we won't warn her?

When people say something about her behavior, they don't get any response in the same way that people complained about Schmoker.

Plus, it's a WARNING. I'm not saying ban her.

What I am curious about and would like to know is what happens when the pattern of behavior is at the low-level-radioactive irritant?

Once MARCIE is up and running - and I'd help if I could, but alas coding is not a skill I have - I don't think this is likely to be a problem, really. On a more philosophical level, I'd say that irritating should not be a warnable offense. (I'd also say that for what it's worth, I'm viewing the replies to her by people who are very clearly irritated by her as baiting her as well. I'm good at DNFTEC, though, and I do understand that other people are more easily frustrated/distracted than I am.)

My apologies for mentioning the dreaded backchannel. I used no names. I felt it a telling barometer of the atmosphere, though.

Oh, crap, I've gone into into hyper-formal tone. Excuse me a moment.