[thechat] listiquette

[Erika Meyer]

I don't read the list thoroughly enough to know all of what causes
trepidation in people.  There is a lot of different stuff going on
there, though.

I joined monkeyjunkies, my first web design list, in 1998.  After
several months of lurking, in awe, I posted a brief but thoughtful
opinion about a flash/splash Hewlett Packard add on the webmonkey.com
site, and promptly got my ass flamed.  It was another year before I
dared post again.

Over the years I've noticed these things about mailing lists:

1. newbies tend to get treated with less respect than old timers.
That's my casual observation from having been on a few lists.  It's
almost like you have to prove yourself... that sucks, IMO, but
whatever.

(actually, evolt sometimes has the reverse situation going on, but
that's another matter...)

If someone has an attitude, or a chip on their shoulder, that is
their problem, not yours.

2.  some things are matters of fact and others are matters of
opinion.  it is important not to mistake one for the other.

I recently rebutted an (incorrect) answer on the list.
http://lists.evolt.org/archive/Week-of-Mon-20020225/104809.html

I'd hope that the person who's answer I rebutted would say "oh" and
have learned something new (if relatively useless), and so would
everyone else.

With all the problems in the world, this is a pretty safe and
insignificant realm for debate.... In My Humble Opinion.

also keep in mind, there are a few Evolters who just enjoy debate --
almost as sport.  They find the dialectical process of debate to be
educational and informative. Others hate it and find it emotionally
taxing.  It's a personality thing.

We have a lot of strong personalities floating around here, and at
our best, we try to be tolerant of each other.

take care,

Erika



>I've even refrained from answering a few questions I know lately, just because
>I don't want to deal with having my answers condemmed.
>
>Kristy
>


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