Re: [LUG] Etiquette was Re: Lightening this morning ...

[Simon Avery <digdilem@xxxxxxxxx>]

Not that useful though: Bad Apple is an able-bodied urban white hetero male anglo-saxon protestant-heritage effectively-atheist tertiary-educated left-brained middle-class UK national. I'm really only uncertain about the protestantism. Very similar to me and most of us on this list.

But you don't know that from preconceptions, only from what he's chosen to reveal about himself. (Including there is a Mrs Bad Apple. For somebody hiding himself for claimed professional reasons, he really does drop a lot of clues and the secret persona only encourages us to be more curious and notice them more!)
 

WRT swearing by Gordon (not an Anglo-Saxon!), as one of his targets, I have to disagree about suppressing swearing, in the same libertarian terms that Bad Apple did about a year ago. Gordon's posts are articulate, intelligent, forceful, clear and to the point; if he chooses to swear it only adds a certain urgent piquancy, which in this case was perfectly appropriate.

Me too, and those who know me personally know I occasionally pick words from the gutter because, well, they fit the moment. But I wouldn't knowingly swear in front of a child and I would moderate to my audience if they looked delicate, elderly or likely to be offended (and female - unless I knew them well. This isn't sexism, it's experience. Women have been far more likely to tell me off if I swear!)

But.. on a mailing list I don't have the luxury of knowing who my words are exposed to, so I tend not to. And as I'm not one of those groups, I don't really care if someone else does!

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