You know, I usually avoid political or religious threads, but I have to post here.
Bren-People who put their lives on the line are most certainly different from people who use clipboards. They deserve our respect, even if we don't agree with their politics or even moral views.
Mike-I'm sorry to see you go. While I've disagreed with you in the past, I generally find your posts interesting, and I really like your house. I appreciate your explanation in the above post about the misuse of words; it makes me a little less pissed off about your first and subsequent posts in this thread. And I wholeheartedly agree with you about political and religious threads on these boards.
I must take issue with the implied idea (could be wrong here) that people shouldn't have friends on online forums, or that friends should not support each other or cover each other's backs. If there are people who make inside jokes here, so be it. We're friends, they're friends, whatever. As I see it, this shouldn't be an anesceptic place where we all pretend that we don't care one whit about one another. And yeah, the jokes can get nasty sometimes. That's the risks people take by being social animals. Yeah, people get pissed off sometimes. See above.
What I find often gets lost (and I've posted about this before) is nuances in voice, facial expressions, hand waving. You don't get that online, so you're free to make up your own interpretations about it. I can (and do!) say nasty things to my close friends in person--but I may be smiling, or using an ironic tone of voice when I do it--they know I'm not serious! Online, in text, that doesn't come across. Sure, we can use smilies, but they're not exactly a great substitute...
At this point, I'm just rambling, so I'm going to stop now. In any case, I'm going to keep reading these boards, and keep posting in the way I do now. I'll just avoid the political threads--and I suggest anyone else with a similarly weak constitution to my own do the same.
