[Leica] Making too big a deal of this

["Doug Richardson" <doug@meditor.demon.co.uk>]

"Kotsinadelis, Peter (Peter)" <peterk@lucent.com> wrote:

>Doug,

>I think you are making too big a deal of this.


Thanks for a useful comment, Peter.  Perhaps I am - maybe it’s a
reflection of the difference between US and European manners & social
conventions.  To call an adult "Junior" and tell him to drop a topic
would be considered aggressively rude on my side of the Atlantic - at
least by someone who is older than most of his vintage Leicas! If it’s
just friendly banter by US conventions, then I was out of line to have
commented.

Whether my comment constituted a "lecture another member as a third
grade teacher might’ (as suggested by "B. D. Colen"
<bdcolen@earthlink.net>) may again be a reflection of social codes and
writing styles on opposite sides of the Atlantic. I remember one
German expert in my own professional field, who had been known to add
to his written contribution to a debate "please excuse my
school-masterly tone". (He may have contributed his share of errors to
discussions, but he was, in the old-fashioned sense, a gentleman.)

My posting was not intended to "stir the pot", nor do I regard Mr
Cohen’s posting as being in this category. I was trying to ‘damp the
flames’ a little in the hope that this might encourage someone who has
valid information on this subject to join in. As someone (Marc I
think) suggested, anyone who repairs Leica M cameras might be able to
at least partially answer Don’s question.

I was also suggesting to Marc and Buzz that while they find the
"plastic parts" controversy pointless, they should not assume (as they
seemed to be doing) that no-one else was interested in the topic. The
day the focusing tab fell off my 28mm Elmarit and turned out to be a
piece of plastic held in place by glue certainly made me interested in
the subject!

Your advice that I "Lighten up on Buzz and Mark" is timely. I'm just
hoping that folks could lighten up on Don too?

Marc makes the valid point that the topic in question isn’t getting
anywhere or achieving anything useful. That’s true, but perhaps that
goes for a lot of the off-topic or even on-topic subjects we chew over
at length. The life which some of our off-topic threads take on
strikes me as (to use Marc’s phrase) "almost eerily weird".

(By the way, given someone’s recent objection to the use of "Herr"
when mentioning the Leica CEO, my use of "Mr" when talking about B.D.
Cohen’s posting is the correct British-English way of addressing
someone who’s first name and nationality are unknown to me. Re-reading
the above text, and my remarks about differing social codes, I worried
that it might seem rude or sarcastic to Mr Cohen, or to our US
members.)

Best regards,

Doug Richardson