> OK, I'm not totally sure you aren't trolling now, but I'll try
> and explain this seriously one more time.

The message poster whom I replied with the link said he was "just
amused" with it. What's special about you that makes you so excited
with the single link I posted? Your lengthy post is over-stuffed with
such words/phrases as "trolling",  "You moron", "you being a jerk" etc
and you don't find it to be offensive. My wikipedia-single-link
without comments in reply even not to you somewhow offends you
immensely, while to whom it was intended it's just an amusement :-)

Regards.

> In one sense when you tell someone of a mistake they made, you are doing
> them a favor. =A0However, there is always a fine line between unsolicited
> advice and nagging. =A0And, when you do it on the PICList you are also
> pointing out that same mistake to 2000 other people. =A0Now the fine line=
 is
> between helpfulness and public ridicule.
>
> Imagine you are at a banquet and the guy sitting next to you stands up to
> make a brief speach. =A0He says "... first I went to the store, than I we=
nt
> home". =A0You wait until he sits down, lean over, and tell him privately =
that
> by the way, that should be "then", not "than". =A0He might be thankful, o=
r he
> might be annoyed, but since it was done privately it could be acceptable =
in
> some contexts. =A0What you are doing by correcting someone on the PIClist
> however, whether you intend it or not, is more like standing up and saying
> "You moron, that should be "then", not "than". =A0Why don't you come back=
 when
> you've earned your 7th grade equivalency certificate", and then you laugh
> and everybody else laughs at him too.
>
> There are times and places for correcting people, and times and places wh=
ere
> its irritating, belittling, and therefore rude. =A0The more publicly it's
> done, the more likely it will be perceived as the latter. =A0Even the pri=
vate
> advice in the above example could fall into this catagory depending on
> context we don't know. =A0The fact that the PIClist is highly public, the=
re
> are enough people here who struggle with english since it's not their fir=
st
> language, and language usage is not the domain of the PIClist, you should
> assume all such comments will be irritating to the recipient and seen as
> belittling and rude by others.
>
> Also keep in mind there are two classes of language mistakes. =A0Mere
> accidents, typos if you will, and true errors where one didn't know bette=
r.
> Correcting the former is rarely useful. =A0At best someone realizes that
> something slipped thru his filters. =A0Correcting the second may be helpf=
ul
> sometimes. =A0However, it's really hard to tell which is which, especiall=
y for
> someone that didn't grow up with the language. =A0And there is no guarant=
ee
> that correcting the second type of error will be well received either. =
=A0That
> depends on the context, person, nature of the error, previous history, and
> proximity to dead fish. =A0In other words, it depends on various factors =
you
> can't know, so you're essentially rolling the dice.
>
> For example, when I wrote "its" intead of "it's" earlier, it was just a
> typo. =A0I know the difference, and generally try to be careful. =A0Somet=
imes
> I'm more hurried than other times and may do less proofreading. =A0Then t=
his
> is also the PIClist where a occasional slipup of that nature should be
> forgiveable, I wasn't getting paid to write anything, and I think the
> meaning was still quite clear. =A0When I saw your comment, I thought to m=
yself
> "Doh, how did that slip thru?", but I also thought your pointing out one =
of
> the (I think) relatively rare times I screw up like that was unfair,
> irritating, and that you were deliberately being a jerk. =A0I decided to =
let
> it go because I think most people watching the interchange would have a
> pretty clear idea of what was really going on (my minor mistake, you bein=
g a
> jerk).
>
> In contrast, the resistor power example from a earlier post is fair game
> because it is within the domain of this list. =A0First we have a right, in
> fact I think a obligation, not to let incorrect statements within the dom=
ain
> of the list go unchallenged. =A0Second, since people come here to talk ab=
out
> such things, they have implicitly requested advice on these topics. =A0An=
yone
> that can't handle being told, "no, it's 9W, not 45mJ, here's the math..."
> doesn't belong here. =A0On the PIClist, that's very different from "no, i=
t's
> 'then', not 'than', here's the dictionary reference...".
>
> Hopefully this helps and you understand. =A0But if not, at least take away
> that this is how it is whether you understand it or not.
>
>
> ********************************************************************
> Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, http://www.embedinc.com/products
> (978) 742-9014. =A0Gold level PIC consultants since 2000.
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> http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
> View/change your membership options at
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
>

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