Re: John Atkinson and Personal Attacks

madre de dios!

i take part in a pithy yet educating thread on the constitutional
arrangement of the NAC, i turn my back on the list for two days and what
happens? flame war!

i know mr atkinson is often grumbled at for being a little rowdy
sometimes, but generally those involved in this latest fracas have been
the cooler heads. i put it down to unusual sunspot activity.

On Thu, 17 Dec 1998, Tom Sullivan wrote:
> For pity's sake, ENOUGH!  Why is it that whenever I run across a 
> personal attack or a slanderous comment, Mr. Atkinson is the author of

> it?

might i (in my usual and tiring way) play devil's advocate here? not
that
i'm equating mr atkinson with the devil, of course. perhaps a minor
demon
:-).

we have had complaints about john before, and, yes, he is a little more
extreme in his expression (if not necessarily his opinions) than some 
others. and, yes, his tub-thumping on behalf of the engineers gets
little
tiring sometimes.

however, most of the time he is on-topic and a positive contribution to
the list. he may get a little over the top at times, and when he does,
maybe we need to calm him down (same as we would anyone who gets badly
overheated). however, it is not fair to brand him the sole flamer of the
list. this recent thread has seen its fair share of imprecations aimed
at
all sorts of people. i won't name any names, but if i had been keeping
up
i would certainly have been one of them.

as john has said before, his somewhat rash streak is part of his makeup
-
i'm not sure it's his fault any more than some people's bad spelling. i
think we have to get used to him and tolerate him. in fact, i have
learned
to love his simple, angry style. the list wouldn't be the same without
it.

>  I, for one, am sick of it.  Mr. Atkinson, I don't care about your 
> opinions.  Not at all.

so don't read his posts. i hate to say it, but john has a right to post
to
this list, just like everyone else. i may not agree with him and dislike
how he says it, but i am with Voltaire on this one: "I may disagree with
what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to
say
it".

damn, that makes me sound like some sort of libertarian anarchist
redneck
gun-nut :-).

>  You are more than free to express 
> yourself, as long as you remain on-topic, but if you (or anyone else) 
> want to start getting abusive KEEP IT OFF THE LIST.

absolutely: i'm right behind this. let's keep things civil and on-topic.

> I am addressing this to the list only because I feel that this is a 
> point of common etiquette that we should not have to be reminded of. 
I 
> will make no further comment upon this subject on this list, and I
thank 
> you all for your patience.

not at all. it's good to get this out in the open.

> Tom Sullivan

another tom? this is getting silly.

i'd add that laserlight's suggestion on the 24-hour rule is a good one.
i
try to apply it to cases where i seem to be disagreeing with everyone,
although i'm not rigorous enough.

Tom (anderson)