regarding 'run-on sentences' and the implicit assumption of courtesy,
the minor flame fest that briefly sputtered upon my publicly thanking a
contributor to this list surprised me, true, i did not quote any of the
pleasing previous answer since no quote was necessary, it was a thankyou
after all. as for courtesy being implied, well that's a nice idea but
(and here i digress but i'm sure that readers will be tolerant) the
reason i teach my child politeness is not -and i have explained this to
her- because the individual rules or words involved are particularly
meaningful, but rather, that the effort to follow them ensures thought
takes place concerning ones actions and speech, i hardly need point out
what can happen in the world when actions and speech are not preceded by
thought (though of course mere thoughtfulness is not always enough), to
return, perhaps i have thoughtlessly broached some rule of the list that
i am unaware of, if so then i humbly apologise, as a newbie in general
terms as well as linux in particular i would welcome any polite
instruction on the matter.
however, surely if every message posted were to fully quote the previous
than any thread of great length becomes a serious download for plain old
56k users like me. clearly most people choose what to quote and how
much, this is presumably done on the need for clear communication and
can sometimes take into account the intended recipient. as i attempted
to point out in the other thread on this list, not all conversations are
intelligible if one enters in the middle, i for one delete messages that
i can not respond to and do not hold info i need, therefore i often read
missives that hold little meaning for me, this has yet to annoy me.
the (relatively) anonymous mailing list has strong psychological
differences to a conversation 'in the flesh', anger is more quickly
aroused and more quickly returned, i strive to avoid this and, i like to
hope, usually succeed. of course, no-one is perfect and perhaps this
post is evidence of that, it's certainly not very linux related, but
linux is a part of life and i like my life happy and wish the same for
all, (almost a non sequitur but not quite).
for readers who wonder what this post is about, i apologise again, the
truth is, i feel slighted by a previous post(s) and i'm not exactly sure
why, this epistle is the result.
feel free to burn effigies of me if you have been annoyed by this, i am
5'8 in old money, chubby, a tad plain and i have long hair if that
helps.
bascule
