As I said elsewhere, most of my upset yesterday was due to what seemed to me the last straw, a complete end to civil discussion, but also the silence had preceded it. It had started to see to me as if the "war of attrition", as Bennett put it, to which I'd been subjected was regarded as an acceptable way to conduct discussion here. I just couldn't understand that. And if that was how things were going to be done around here, well, then I really couldn't stand it anymore.
But, well, the messages from Bennett, especially, but also others who have written notes to the list and privately to me have made it clear that I wasn't the only one who was bothered by how the discussion had degenerated. I hope very much that, as Abdel said, we might all commit ourselves to being nicer to each other the next time one of these discussions gets heated. And to reminding the participants that time of how bad things got this time.
I also want to emphasize that I don't regard myself as entirely free of blame. These things are almost never just one person's doing, and I'm sure my frustrations got the better of me somewhere along the way. Probably several times along the way.
Anyway, I'm going to be very busy for the next few weeks. (Day job, you know.) And maybe I could use a little break. But I'll monitor the list and fix a bug here and there, just to relax. I'll be back.
Richard
