the other alex said:
>   If you expect politeness, you first
>   need to be considerate yourself.

i haven't expected "politeness" from this list
since the very first day that i came here, and
the subsequent years have only confirmed it.

i interact very politely with everyone who
interacts politely with me...  _everyone_...

heck, i will even interact politely with people
who have made me their "enemy" in the past,
providing that they interact politely with me...

i am also constantly amused by those people who
tell me that i "first need to be considerate" myself,
since they regularly fail to follow their own advice.

i don't call people names.  i don't do ad hominem.

i make long posts that are elaborately documented.

but some other people call _me_ names, and they
do ad hominem on _me_, and they _never_ever_
seem to take much time to address my arguments.

i don't do ad hominem, because i don't need to...

even when i say something is _"stupid"_, i address
_the_argument_ (or its absence), not _the_person_,
unless pushed to the edge by excessive repetition.

nobody here is stupid.  i'd guess that you all score
"above average" on an i.q. test.  but _some_ of you
do -- on occasion -- say some very stupid things...


>   Setting aside the flood of abuse you
>   regularly hurl at respected members of this list

oh please.  what, when, where.  be specific, because
_you_, alex -- right _now_ -- are doing ad hominem.


>   I asked you many months ago why you --
>   as the only person here, to my knowledge --
>   insist on contributing to this list
>   in ugly, bloated HTML emails,
>   instead of in plain-text, which is
>   the gold standard of mailing-lists,
>   especially (!) tech lists.

well, first of all, alex, i have informed you that
you are in my kill-filter, which means that you
shouldn't really expect a reply from me, ever...

by the way, very few people make my kill-filter.
you must have said some _very_ stupid things...

i read this post of yours on the listserve website,
more or less by accident, but if i had been reading
my e-mail, i never ever would have seen your post.

i _did_ see your earlier queston, and i chose not to
answer it, because it wouldn't have done any good.

yes, my posts to this listserve come here as .html,
not because i "insist" on that, but simply because
the a.o.l. client provides no way to make a choice
as to what it sends out.  and yes, that's backwards.
but it is what it is.  so you will have to live with it...

so, do you feel like that answer did you any good?

yeah, i didn't think so.

so now you will pursue your attack tactics, and
point out that i could use some other software,
one which _did_ give me a choice in the matter,
and you will ask me why i don't do that instead?

so here's my answer to that -- _i_don't_want_to_.

do you feel like _that_ answer did you any good?

yeah, i didn't think that it would, either.

so then you will proceed to escalate your attack.

you'll say "the fact that you don't want to change
indicates that you're doing all this on purpose..."

and i'll say "if i could take an action that would
make the a.o.l. client work correctly, i _would_.
but i cannot.  so that's just the way it is, alex."

i could also point out that it's not even in _my_
best interests to have my posts fall outside the
threads in which they belong...  think about it...

but that won't make you happy, so you'll repeat
the thing that you just said...  and so then i will
repeat what i just said, so you'll repeat it again.

and then i'll get bored with all of that, and say
"ya know, that's what happens when technocrats
try to force a 'standard' on everyone.  i'm sure
the people at a.o.l. thought they were moving
_forward_ by using .html instead of plain-text,
just like the e-book standards people thought
they were moving forward by mandating that
e-books should use .html format exclusively,
and again when they updated that to .xhtml,
and now when they are changing it to .html5.
hey, they always think they know what's best!"

so, you see, alex, part of this .html thing is
rubbing your nose in the .html when all you
_really_ want is just the good ol' plain-text.
do you see the bigger point?  the metaphor?

at least i _could_ say that, if i _decided_ to.

it's not true, but it _does_ have a nice ring.

the truth is, i'd happily change it right away
_if_ i could.  but i can't.  so live with it, alex,
with the takeaway lesson that we all need to
make demands that our systems are flexible.


>   you break a discussion thread, creating
>   havon on (for example) my iPad and iPhone, etc.

alex, i'm sure you meant "havoc" there.
typing on your ipad right now, are you?    :+)

hey, alex, i feel for you.  i truly do.

it's really very important for all of us to grok
how _interdependent_ we are on each other,
and how much we have riding on getting our
systems to work correctly, for best usage...

that's your lesson, alex:  our systems _matter_.


>   If you don't give a damn about messing up
>   other people's inboxes on a daily basis,

see, there you go again, alex, blaming _me_
for some "decision" that i supposedly made,
thinking that it means i "don't give a damn".

social psychologists have a name for that
-- "the fundamental attributional error".

we attribute the behavior of other people to
_their_character_, something about _them_.
not completely, but we error in that direction.

our own behavior, on the other hand, we
tend to attribute to environmental factors.
again, not completely, but it's the tendency.

we know all of the factors impinging on us,
and how they have impacted our behavior...
we know the reason _why_ we did something,
and it rarely has to do with "our character"...
(particularly not when that'd be unflattering.)

and we rarely know the external factors that
were acting on somebody else, and might
have been _the_ reason for their behavior.
instead we say "that's just the way they are".

the reality is that most of us are quite plastic,
so situations can make us do almost anything.
even including herding jews into gas showers.
that's how pliable we can be, as human beings.
kinda scary to think about, isn't it?  very scary.


>   you can't be surprised
>   at the lack of civility you're experiencing,

i haven't been "surprised" by the lack of civility
since my very first day on this listserve, alex...

(marcello, that's your cue...  don't be late...)


>   or the lack of interest in
>   your innumerable projects.

when i want to stir up interest in my projects,
i'll release them publicly.  that time will come.

-bowerbird

p.s.  and once again, for alex and everyone else
who gets irritated by reading my posts:  _stop._
just stop!  don't read them!  i don't care!  really!
indeed, i'd much rather have you not read them
than read them and get yourself all worked up...
seriously.  none of us needs the drama.  nobody.
put me in your kill-file if you can't resist my posts.
you will be doing a favor to me, you, and everyone.