[EM] Don champions politeness

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

Don Davison said:

Dear Eppley and Ossipoff,

     I am a subscriber to this EM list and I am more than willing to take
the time to let both of you know the errors of your ways and to let you
both have it.
     (Be careful what you ask for, you may just get it.)

     You two have no business talking about antisocial behavior.  From year
one of this list you `two peas in a pod' have been more than willing to be
rude, insulting, and generally antisocial to any and all who do not agree
with you two.

I reply:

Actually no, it isn't about whether someone agrees or disagrees. For
instance, I replied very politely to Rob LG's initial posting about
wv vs Margins. As I've said, I'm very careful to at least match other
people's politeness level. In your case, however, that's too easy.

I assume that you're writing because I referred to Anthony as a "twit",
and a "jackass". It isn't for me
to say whether Anthony's posting was the result of astounding stupidity,
or dishonesty, and I don't care which it was. But sometimes, when
someone argues in a way that is repeatedly, continuingly, asinine,
as our friend Anthony had been doing in that instance, well yes,
like anyone, I can lose patience with someone like that.

But let's distinguish that from your own lapses, which are of an
entirely different sort. On a mailing list whose topic is voting
systems, you sometimes devote much space in your postings to
rambling on at great length about individuals with whom you disagree.
I'm not going to waste posting-space by finding & copying the many
examples of that behavior of yours, but it's in the archives.

Don continues:

It is your way of cleansing the list of nonbelievers

I reply:

Excuse me, I wasn't aware that I'd said anything about belief. Would
you cite or re-post an archived posting in which I referred to anyone
as a "nonbeliever", or criticized anyone for what they did or didn't
believe? Yes, I've criticized you for saying some really stupid things.

Don continues:

...I'm no gentleman.


I reply:

Thank you for breaking that news, Don.

Don continues:

     You, Steve, had the additional antisocial behavior of sending posts to
other lists bad-mouthing persons of this list and telling the other list
that it should not accept any posts from these persons that you were down
on.

I reply:

I'm not on any other mailing lists. I have no idea what you're
talking about. I've heard, however, that you vent lots of rage
on other mailing lists about participants in this mailing list.

Don continues:

    Fool that you are, you most likely did not think that these lists
would pass your posts on to those of us who you were bad-mouthing.  I was
amused.
     Yes Steve, we, who were subjects of your [w]rath were aware to what you
were doing.

I reply:

Most likely, Steve isn't currently a member of EM.



Don continues:

     I would say that you hit your peak in a letter to Albert in December
of 1998.  Yes, that was your best, your finest hour, you showed him, how
dare he disagree with you.  `It was a very good year for..' you.  I don't
think Albert has posted to this list since then.

I reply:

Albert was rather a cross between Blake & Markus. Blake's bilous
nature, and Markus's penchant for the most absurd repeated apparent 
misunderstandings. And, like Blake, Albert wrote quite long letters.
Longer than Blake's postings, actually. Did I finally get tired of
answering Albert, and become impatient with him? Sure.

You said that Albert left the list because of me. You've got that
backwards. I left, because I wasn't quite dedicated enough to
be willing to keep receiving Albert's postings.


Next Don quotes a number of remarks, and says that I made them during
just one letter. But Don forgot to add that it was a letter in reply
to one of Albert's long, long postings. What, 30K? I suppose one
could check the archives to find out. In a letter of that length,
all of those remarks that Don quotes could be widely-scattered in
the posting.

Mike Ossipoff

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