Many of us have been here for a long time. Somehow you have felt the sense of
community, made friends, met each people personally or internetally, so you
feel fine or even amused by occasional jokes like this recent thread.
But for a newcomers who haven't been long enough to feel that, he might not
feel that way, and we should understand that too. Have you noticed that
sometimes when you gather with your close friends, you make really really
stupid jokes but everybody enjoys the gathering whereas when you go to a
meeting where you are new and you see people joking similar stupid jokes, you
feel that they are so stupid and the jokes are tasteless and meaningless? It
is not the content of the jokes, it is the friendship and closeness that
matters.
>From the recent postings, although I believe no one was hostile and there
were many "no offense" in the posting, I personally think that statements
like "lighten up," "you can hit the delete key," or "you can unsubscribe"
make a newcomer feel unwelcome (although I don't really know whether he is a
newcomer). You might not mean it the way it sounds or was taken, but we have
to admit that written words sometimes don't communicate tone, feeling, or
connotation accurately.
I have generated a long thread of flaming last summer by simply asking a
short question to mean well. I hope this will not happen with the message.
Please, please, please, I personally have nothing against urinography or
pee-type or whatever, but however we feel, we need to understand how others
feel too (even if we don't agree with how/why one feels this way of that
way).
Thank you, peace, and best regards,
Dave S.