Russell.

I think, that you missed a step of logic in this point, notithstanding 
it being 4:45am for you, I think it is important to identify the fact 
that cause and effect have not been established in this case. 
Specifically, there is no indication that the annoyed state of 'some' 
piclist members is caused by the language content of the mail.

I am under the distinct impression that, for at least some people, an 
'annoyed state' is perpetual, and that it is just waiting for an excuse 
to manifest.

In other words, there is a distinct difference between being annoyed, 
and expressing that annoyance. Further, the cause for the expression may 
be wildly different from the cause of the actual annoyance. As an 
analogy, it's sort of like 'throwing up'. Sometimes people throw up 
because they see something gross and the gag reflex goes too far. Other 
times people throw up because they have been on chemo therapy for a few 
days and they moved their head. In the first case you could say that the 
up-chuck was caused by the gross situation. In the second case, the 
cause is the chemo, but the trigger of the effect is the head movement.

I think it needs to be established first whether the annoyance was 
caused by the allegedly poor English, or whether there is a latent 
annoyance waiting for a opportunity to pounce. This is significant 
because, in this case it is very important to establish the WHY rather 
than the just ARE. Taking that point further, with a list membership in 
the thousands, it is inevitable that some members are latently annoyed, 
and we know the old adage: you can please all the people some of the 
time, and some of the people all of the time, but not all the people all 
the time.

Rolf

On 14/07/2010 12:48 PM, RussellMc wrote:
> 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.Viz -
>
>    
>>>> >  >>  ... 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.
>    

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