[PLUG] The virtue of posting while calm

[Cliff Wells]

On Mon, 2004-01-19 at 23:11, Chris Jantzen wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 19, 2004 at 11:05:51PM -0800, Paul Johnson wrote:
> > Perhaps it would be best if you showed some restraint and stopped
> > posting while angry?  Feel free to write it all out, just hit abort
> > instead of send.  Trust me, it gets it out of your system.
> 
> Yeah, I've written huge diatribes and got to the end of reviewing it
> and sending it, and saying to myself: "Screw it. I don't care that
> much." Feels oh so much better about 10 minutes later.

If it were simply about the name of a user group, I'd concur.  However,
many of the comments have been personal or general attacks on the
integrity of PDXLUG members, at least some of whom are personal friends
of mine.  I can certainly appreciate that there may have been (and
continue to be) personal frictions between certain individuals.  What I
don't appreciate is having people whom I like and respect publicly
attacked for no good reason.  PDXLUG, like PLUG, is composed of
/individuals/, many of whom might say or do things that do not reflect
the ideas or mores of the whole.  I certainly doubt all the members of
PDXLUG would condone my course of action.  I do not pretend to represent
PDXLUG, and it would be nice if the people who are claiming to represent
PLUG would acknowledge the same.

I have certainly fed into this today (intentionally, to be quite frank),
but the "discussion" and mudslinging started long before my first post. 
I am aware that it is a vocal minority who are attempting to speak on
behalf of the whole of PLUG and certainly acknowledge that there are
many decent and intelligent people on this list who have better things
to do with their time than follow this pointless flamewar.  My intention
here today was to highlight exactly how /annoying/ this entire argument
has been for quite some time and how it feels to have a personal attack
leveled at you on a public list.  I'll be quite honest though: if it
comes up again, I'll be right back.  There are apparently people who
cannot see how their constant harassment and bitching can be annoying to
others.  Maybe now that will be a little more clear.  If not, well, I
suppose I will be happy to fling insults and rebuttals as long as
necessary until perhaps they get bored enough to let it go or at least
keep it off of public forums.

Regards,
Cliff

-- 
Their only desire is to die
               -The Smiths