BoatBanter.com - Temp good bye to USENET (Rogers user)

in article , John Fereira at
wrote on 12/17/05 5:45 PM:

KMAN wrote in
:

in article , RkyMtnHootOwl at
wrote on 12/17/05 12:27 AM:

On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 22:09:14 -0500, KMAN wrote:

"John Fereira" wrote in message
.. .
KMAN wrote in
:

in article , RkyMtnHootOwl
at wrote on 12/16/05 1:20 AM:

snip

I am joking around with him. As indicated by the relevant textual
signs. These include "LOL" and ":-D"

Whether or not he thinks it funny is one thing, but the humorous
intent is not in question, nor will anyone but Tinkernhootowl think
that I was making a serious criticism of JF.

Your comment was taken as it was intended. However, it appears to
me that *both* of you have buttons that when barely tickled result
in a strong reaction. It's perfectly okay for one of you to post
something without the other reacting to it.

Says you! Asshole!*

snip
* again, kidding

I see

snip

I see you didn't consider John's advice!

To be honest, while I thought the "you're an old guy" crack to be a good
natured poke I took the "Says you! Asshole*" remark in a different light.
While I imagine some people might be offended by the "old guy" remark I saw
it as a good natured dig, and would have seen it the same way without a
winking smiley face. In other words, the fact that one comment had a smiley
face and the other a "kidding" is irrelevant. I tend to ignore emoticons
and instead look the intent in which a comment appears to be given. In the
first, it appeared that you were just taking a friendly poke, while the
second was a flippant response to avoid a point I was trying to make. I
don't know why some people that they can anything at all about someone else
and adding a smiley face is supposed to somehow soften the blow.

This group needs an enema! Super-charged at that!

If I were similarly arse-puckered, I could whine about how your comment was
pompous and patronizing, and how you in your reaction just proved that you
yourself have a rather sensitive button when hardly tickled. And remind you
that it's perfectly OK for someone to make such a post without you having to
react to it. But instead I opted for a humorous response.

The purpose of an emoticon should not be "too soften the blow" but rather to
indicate intent with respect to a text-based communication, as textual
phrases utilized without benefit of tonality can be taken in many different
ways. But if you suffer perma-puckered-arse-syndrome, it's quite true that a
dozen or a hundred smilies are not going to alter a puckered arse reaction.