Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/03/17

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica DSLR
From: Martin Howard <mvhoward@mac.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 22:32:28 -0800

Richard F. Man wrote:

> If you notice, I have not expressed an opinion. I am asking questions, 
> which somehow can be taken as inexcusable offense by some.

Richard, I think you may have inadvertently stepped into a minefield 
here... ;)

This is a very active group with well over 100 messages a day on active 
days.  We (if the LUG will forgive me for generalizing) also tend to be 
rather opinionated people, who are not afraid to speak (or type) their 
mind.  And, we are a very diverse bunch of people, which means that we 
bring many different perspectives to the table on any given issue.

As such, we occasionally get firestorms that rage here on the LUG.  At 
least one has concerned digital M cameras, or whatever you might like 
to call them.  On this list are electronics experts, computer experts, 
optics experts, expert photographers, and people like me who are none 
of the above but who recognize an attractive idea when they see one: 
all of them bring a different perspective, not all of whom agree.  At 
times, those disagreements have been heated and memories of them still 
linger.

Coupled to this have been a number of instances in which people have 
discovered that the LUG can be a wonderful toy for the terminally bored 
and socially deprived.  Posting inflammatory questions, or replies, 
preferably to every single other message posted to this group has been 
the game of at least two people, before they got kicked off.  None of 
us enjoy the experience, so I think that when someone (innocently) asks 
one of the "contentious questions", there is a risk over an overly curt 
reply in an attempt to stifle trollers early on.

In short, I pretty sure that no one on this list considers genuine 
interest as inexcusably offensive and hope that you can understand 
that, while no-one was trying to be rude or offensive, a combination of 
(our) history and (your) relatively recently joining this list (and 
therefore also with tools such as the FAQ and the archive) got 
dangerously close to the edge... ;)

And, by the way, welcome to the fray!

M.

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