Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/03/05

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Subject: Re: On-list insults - was RE: [Leica] M3 and airport .
From: Javier Perez <summarex@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 00:56:15 +0000
References: <64.1b7ac62d.29b6f492@aol.com>

Are you saying that reading rudeness on the LUG
caused you to take a railroad trip from NY to LA?
Amazing!


SthRosner@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 3/5/02 10:24:36 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> kiklaas@iinet.net.au writes:
> 
> > I thought photographers were "happy" people - bad genralisation perhaps,
> >  I am new to this thread and I am gobsmacked at the amount of in-house
> >  squabbling that goes on - I would expect this in an all girls high school
> >  (do not see too many females writing into this thread) - GOSH, I thought
> >  this was meant to be an informative, fun, sharing experience.
> >
> >  I would hate to see what would happen if all came face to face - talk
> >  about egos.
> 
> My guess is if we all came face-to-face, it wouldn't happen.
> 
> A couple of weeks ago I posted a sharp reaction to what I read as some
> extremely rude, uncivil messages. I unsubscribed. In the interim, I took a
> rail trip from Albany, New York to Los Angeles and return (6,150 miles =
> almost 10,000 km!). A lovely trip, a little cocoon of space and time without
> intrusions, no television, no telephones, leisure to read, photograph (I
> inaugurated my new 50 year-old Leica IIf with 50/3,5 Elmar and a 25/4
> Voigtlander/Cosina Skopar) and contemplate. Also completely rested my delete
> finger.
> 
> I thought of some of the discussions which have recently once again hit the
> LUG and of how often they deteriorate into pure personality clashes. And it
> occured to me that this phenomenon may well be attributable to our electronic
> medium. Were we face-to-face, we would, I suggest, never never speak to one
> another as we seem to feel free to write to one another. It would become an
> intolerably uncomfortable world. And if two people actually did so in public,
> that is in a public social setting, others would simply walk away and shun
> them - it would be too uncomfortable. And it might well lead to blows. This
> medium is an insulator that disconnects us from the consequences of our
> rudeness.
> 
> There is another aspect to this: I believe that there have been posts here
> that were intended as jokes or puns but that have been read seriously and
> therefore been taken as provocations. Sharp response spirals into sharper
> counter-response. When we are face-to-face with someone, body language,
> facial expressions and all kinds of other unspoken "language" can convey that
> we do not mean seriously the words we speak, that in fact we sometimes mean
> the opposite. And the "listener" understands that unspoken "language" as it
> is intended to be conveyed. The internet deprives us of that possibility.
> 
> I have a feeling that if we all bear this in mind, if when we are writing a
> criticism of someone else's post we think of what and how we would express
> ourselves if we were sitting with that person and a couple of others - say
> Papa Ted Grant and Momma Tina Manley - having coffee at Starbucks!! - and if
> we remain cognisant of the fact that the other person can't see our
> expression or hear the different tone of voice, this would be a much
> pleasanter place.
> 
> We can still disagree as strenuously as we always have and yet keep our
> disagreements and discourse from becoming so hostile that the LUG becomes far
> less pleasant than it can and should be.
> 
> My $.02.
> 
> Best to all,       Seth         LaK 9
> --
> To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html

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In reply to: Message from SthRosner@aol.com (Re: On-list insults - was RE: [Leica] M3 and airport .)