Hat: Admin casual off duty beret (it's 4:45am and work calls)

> >> ... Frankly, I don't understand why
> >> you and some others are getting so defensive

> > Because its irritating and rude.

> (its =3D> it's)

> No, it most certainly is not.
> ---
> Man: Ah, Is this the right room for an argument?
> =A0 =A0 Mr Vibrating: I told you once.
> =A0 =A0 Man: No you haven't.

etc ...

Let's see if logic works.

1. You seem to be missing the point of your own illustration.
Olin, "and other(s))", HAVE in fact (ie electrons were disturbed and
Google et al hold essentially irremovable records) given an opinion on
the subject. This can be demonstrated logically and step by step with
documentary evidence.
If your email client is in working order (as it seems to be) then you
too will have a record of this, and a copy will be in the PICList
archives.

So the "Having been told" aspect seems to be fulfilled by what would
'normally' be considered to be a reasonable test.

Whether what you have been told is 'true' is not at this stage the
point. It's the fact of having been told.
That is, as above, reasonably established.

2. The proposition "That it's not annoying to people" seems hard to
argue with any hope of success.
That people have reacted with annoyance "seems"to demonstrate this.
Your not understanding WHY people are annoyed should not blind you to
the fact that they ARE annoyed, or that annoyance may reasonably be
expected in such cases.

You have acknowledged  the fact that people are annoyed by what you wrote.V=
iz -

> >> ... Frankly, I don't understand why
> >> you and some others are getting so defensive

You could argue that "getting defensive" and "being annoyed by" etc
are not the same thing.
Unless you are a lawyer or similar then the prospected of the argument
being seen as reasonable in "normal" situations would seem slim.

3. Perhaps you missed the "assertion"/ possibly vain attempt to explain :-)

"            The large majority of people* who are on the "receiving
end" of such a
post, and the majority* of people who read it, will see such an effort
as a taunt or similar. It may be that if you were on the receiving end
of such a "missive" that it would not bother you, but that just makes
it the more important that you accommodate other people's 'weaknesses'
& peccadilloes. A bit of explanatory comment, softening what otherwise
can easily come across as a Sabres-at-dawn gauntlet-slap across the
face, might go a long way to making such offerings less offensive."

and the explanation of the basis on which this claim was made.

4. But, to answer the problem that you and "Mr Vibrating" and "Man"
seem to have.

Please be informed that IMHO,AE

  "People typically** find such approaches to informing them annoying.
If you wish to inform rather than to troll then it is usually better
to add a bit of explanation. And list rules, established for reasons
perhaps inscrutable, require that such informing and explaining be
done, if at all, using the [OT] tag. Failure to observe such tag
observance is liable to attract the bad cop's wrath.

Note FYI that a certain amount of trolling may be found acceptable in
[OT] but that the bad cop has his limits and he's a wee bit tetchy of
late. If you wish to make his day then, by all means, lay on. If not,
then stopping somewhere about here is probably a really good idea.
Please note that this is not a threat of any sort on my part. Just a
helpful warning. If I just step back and take my hand off the
dead-man's-handle*** the 'automated' systems  will cut in sooner or
later".

5. If you genuinely love "English" and want to learn more about its
usual and not so usual applications then you've come to the right
place (or one of them), and we could have a fine old time together. If
you, rather, enjoy flame wars, invective and their ilk, then you will
almost certainly find other fora more conducive to your journey.



                       Russell


*** http://bit.ly/DeadMansSwitch

* Please refer to prior post where the basis for this material was explaine=
d.

-- =

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