Cortlandt Wilson asks:

>Dsilva,
>I don't get it.   Are you serious or trying to make a joke?


And Donna Garverick writes:
> ..i think as a whole we've become somewhat argumentative and more touchy
than normal.

I personally think both things are related. There have been certain people
lately (one in particular) that have been posting messages without substance
that are rude, demeaning and argumentative. We on the list do get combative
on occasion but we generally play by certain undeclared rules. We all know
these rules they are part of mature expression of ideas. Some of the
postings coming from the source.

This is a case of a child  trying to play with adults. The child thinks they
understand the game but in reality it they have only picked up a small
portion of the outer glitz. The child thinks they are playing the same game
but in fact what they are doing bears as much similarity to the real game as
a can of tomato sauce bears to a fine marinara sauce. This was certainly
evidenced by one post yesterday in which this poster basically said that his
"big brother(s)" could beat us up(figuratively I'm sure though maybe not).

I have avoided responding to this persons posts because I have believed that
to do so would only encourage him/her to seek further attention through
ruder and sillier posts. I still believe that we should not encourage this
child to seek negative attention. I believe we should not respond to these
negative posts. If this poster wants attention let them earn it by acting
like a  responsible member of this community.

I know that I have no right to chastise anyone, especially not on issues of
maturity. I too have felt that there has been a deterioration in the level
of civility on the list lately. I would hate to think that anyone is afraid
to post a question, thought or idea due to fear that they will receive a
rude response.

If anyone wishes to disagree with me please, I beg you for the reasons
stated above, do so offline.

Apologetically,
Joseph Rosenblatt