Actually, I do have one poster for whom I use the Ignore feature, and I find it works just fine.
As to the rest of your post, I'm curious what information you think you have about my relationship with SI that would lead you to suggest inferences that are not supported by any facts that have been presented here. What information are you basing your opinion on, and are you confident that your information is reliable?
As to whether I should self-censor my postings beyond the limitations imposed by the Terms of Use, I choose not to do so. If SI had a feature where you could post to the board in general without having to reply to a specific message, I would try to use that where possible to avoid posting responses to particularly individuals when they so requested. But it doesn't, so often the only way to respond to an issue raised by a poster and have it make sense to the thread is to make it through a response to that poster. That's just the way SI is. So when any poster posts things I think need to be responded to, I will reserve the right to respond to them.
You may consider that in whatever light you choose to. But it's clear that anybody who doesn't want to engage me in discussion is free not to do so. They can just ignore me.
And as to thrusting oneself into others' inboxes in unpleasant and unwanted ways, you and WinSmith and Solon seem to be doing an excellent job of just that. Why you consider this any business of yours I don't know. But though it would be more pleasant if you didn't intrude on what is a personal issue between two people neither of whom is yourself, I don't demand that you not do so. (I have, though, asked Win Smith never to post to me again; let's see whether he believes that such requests should be complied with when they are addressed to him. My bet, frankly, is no, but maybe I misjudge the man.) In your case, since we have had very pleasant times posting to each other in the past, I am delighted to continue my posting dialogue with you, even if you choose to say unpleasant things to me when I have said nothing to you that I know of that was unpleasant or unwelcome.
BTW, I must say that I find it difficult to see how a person can legitimately be frightened by what is posted on a public thread, out in the open, in compliance with the Terms of Use, to an unidentified person posting under an alias who, by her profile, lives some three thousand miles away from me. If you can explain to me how it is legitimate to be seriously frightened by that, in any normal sense of the term, I will reconsider my position. Things said in this forum may well be unpleasant (as your words were to me), but frightening? That doesn't make sense to me, personally. I am hardly a Steven King construct, after all, whatever else I may be. |
