Posted by Lyn on August 26, 2006 at 20:26:58 from 207.200.116.66 user LynMellone.
In Reply to: Re: Let's hear it for acid ! posted by Joe Windsor on August 25, 2006 at 17:11:46:
Oh, dear . . . I'm sure I'm butting in where I'm not wanted (and I can't communicate in terms of pH balances), but I have to add one comment.
The written word is so difficult. I have offended again and again when I thought only that I was writing a hasty post (on another message board). Each time I had not been the least bit aware of writing anything that would seem to be hurtful or unkind, and yet the person who read the post inferred that I had indeed suggested or implied negative comments about him or her.
Joe, I agree with your sentiments overall. But I will also say that unless each of us operates in the benefit of the doubt, the problem is with the reader not the writer. It's the reader who must not make any assumptions about the writer's tone of "voice." Treat each and every post as neutral -- or even positive! -- until proven otherwise by continued trollish behavior.
We cannot be always reminding each other about the need to be "kind." When we perceive unkindness, we can just ignore it and move on. . . . Can't we?
(Besides, some TarBoard members have been here long enough -- and know each other well enough -- that they can be deliberately caustic [there, I got in my pH-related word] with each other.)