Huey, Curbstone and all,
Frankly, I was inspired by Paul's posts #52061 and #52065. At the same time, they made me a little ashamed of myself for selfishly making life a lot more fun around here for myself by leaving Shannon on "ignore."
Paul is right for defending the community and the two of you are wrong for criticizing him. Of all the posts Paul has written, you two decided to single out the one whose tone was clearly out of character. Instead, you should have used your energy and our bandwidth to criticize the many of Shannon's posts for their consistent character.
Having seen the ruckus, I decided to see what the ruckus was all about. I took Shannon off "ignore" and realized that, sure enough, Paul was responding to a post by Shannon that was in the same rude tone that we've become accustomed to from him.
Now that I've seen Shannon's post, which I now realize was addressed to me, I could respond to it. But I won't. The reason I won't is because he's so smart that I know he couldn't have written anything so stupid unless he was trying to be mean. Regardless of Shannon's immense intellect, an intentionally mean post doesn't deserve a response. Especially because of Shannon's immense intellect, an intentionally mean post doesn't deserve a response.
Curbstone, I'm embarrassed and offer my apologies that I don't remember your real name, don't associate your screen name with someone I presumably met in San Diego, and don't remember you as a frequent poster here if indeed you are. Huey, I'm very familiar with your wonderful posts here. I know Huey is too sharp not to pick up on the mean-spirited tone of Shannon's post. I assume Curbstone is too. Rather than criticizing him, the two of you criticize Paul. Shame on both of you.
Huey, you asked, “Can’t we all just get along?” I wouldn't stoop so low as to try to get along with Shannon. He doesn't deserve the effort. For the same reason he wouldn't be welcome in my home, I don't extend a welcome to him here and, thus, am glad to have him back on "ignore."
If you and others want to repeatedly defend Shannon and the likes of him while at the same time criticizing Paul and the likes of him, please, please do. Do so en masse. That's your right. Doing so will serve as an eye-opening vote that tells me to completely reverse my previous thinking and encourage Frank to create a moderated G&K thread that competes with this one. I would encourage the major contributors to this thread to stop posting here. I would stop posting here.
So, everyone who agrees with Curbstone and Huey on this issue, please cast your vote publicly. In the event that you vote strongly and openly enough by defending Shannon and criticizing Paul, and in the event Frank doesn't want to create a wholly competing moderated thread, I just might create it myself.
--Mike Buckley |
