Hey Carol (and the list!)

The escalation was equally my fault. And I also apologise for the incident,
and the things I said.

My "nice" comment, as I explained in private, was not intended to cause
upset - I was unaware of the connotations. In that light; I can see how my
reply could cause upset, and in future I'll avoid the word! (Incidentally,
that reminds me of an anecdote from primary school - when I wrote a short
story which used the word "nice" to describe something. I didn't half get
an ear bashing from my teacher about how horrible and bland a word it was.
So this is not the first time I have gotten in trouble using "nice" in my
writing)

Anyway; what you wrote the other day, Carol, was most definitely an
apology, no "sort of" about it :) And I hope my apology in reply was
adequate.

As I mentioned in our email exchange the other day; being a male on this
list can sometimes make it feel difficult to participate. If I respond
in-kind to strong comments this gets criticised (not unreasonably). If I
roll over I feel this is just as sexist/rude, even if only I know about it
(i.e. I'm subject to a thought process like "that person is female, so I
should defer to avoid causing offence").

My solution is to try and make my responses match the message I am replying
to; this obviously doesn't always work out :)

So in the future if I am being a jerk or an idiot a) it has nothing to do
with the sex of the people involved and b) please do send me a private note
with the appropriate level of "trout" applied.

We all get grumpy or offended at times, and I don't mean it personally.

The notes from the moderators posted to this list are great; and I will do
my best to meet the high standard they are looking for in the future.
Tom

On 30 August 2012 14:31, Carol Moore DC <[email protected]> wrote:

>  I hate to use physiological excuses, but...the reason I "lost control"
> was I had a bad head cold - plus doing strong coffee on top.  So confused
> mental/emotional states on steroids dominated my writing...
>
> I value Wikipedia as a place where I HAVE to be diplomatic, since I do
> lose my temper like that a bit too much sometimes on various male dominated
> political lists where there's a lot of flaming, so I was unhappy about my
> own "slip."
>
> I did write Mr. Morton and (sort of) apologize for "starting" in such a
> provocative "joking" tone because of his "nice" comment, instead of just
> making a civil comment/question...and then for my escalating from there.
> Two days on my apologies to the him and the list are even more sincere!! :-)
>
> Glad to see Laura misunderstood and wasn't asked to leave. Politically I
> understand worldwide problems with American Imperialism; Wikimedia-wise I
> just haven't been sufficiently on top of the intricacies of Wikimedia
> politics to understand all the issues so at least there I've been able to
> maintain my diplomacy - so far!!
>
> CM
>
>
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>
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