I received an off topic comment from Ivan last night which I thought merited a longer response than normal. He noticed that I had posted a comment on another website, where he had also commented, and he asks: "Is it just me or is the average level of discourse extremely acrimonious [on that site]? Yours and Erins are light years ahead in civility imho."
First, thank you for your comment, the compliment, and for putting me in Erin's company.
Civility has gone by the boards in some of what passes for web based discourse. Too many people take shelter in their anonymity and snipe away. Happily that has not occurred here or on Erin's board, as Ivan points out. Why is that? Beats me. I feel fortunate in the people who choose to come to read my offerings leave comments that are well written and thoughtful. No one here, yet, has left a comment for the purpose of trying to show just how much smarter he or she is than me or the other readers. That kind of person is a bore. So far, no bores here. They do exist on other boards. In fact, some of you may remember that I got banned from another blog for disagreeing with the author. I did it politely but even polite disagreement was too much for that fragile soul and she banned me. I blogged about that experience here. I welcome people to disagree with me but my momma raised me right, even if it almost killed her, and I doubt that I'd tolerate people attacking each other or being rude here.
Finally, when I leave comments on other people's boards, I try to re-read the comment before I post it. I often go back and tone things down. Maybe that's all that's needed on that other site. Or, maybe, people are too busy trying to impress each other.
Either way, I'm grateful and thankful for the intelligent readers who visit and comment here. Thanks!
Posted by Random Penseur at June 16, 2004 09:15 AM