Well, if I wanted to value diplomacy above all else, I could easily tone down some of my remarks. But while I value courtesy and respect, I often find that political correctness-at-all-costs actually hinders genuine
dialogue discussion.
Of course I would use more tact with a newcomer, or someone who had begun with a softer approach, but Ariel Type is no stranger (from a forum perspective, that is), and set a very evident benchmark of forthrightness from the get-go. I met that in kind. I don't consider that defensive. Just two people dispensing with BS to get thoughts across. There's nothing personal about a frank disagreement of ideas, though people often choose to take it so. If someone thought my comments were ridiculous, I definitely WOULD hope they'd say so, rather than bending over backwards to assure me how much they value my opinion while secretly thinking I'm an idiot.
As for the I/we thing, well, there's no real way around that, short of logging in with a pseudonym to share my personal opinions with no editor slant.
But I choose to engage and mix it up in the community, as do our mods, and figure most people who actually read these forums can figure out which hat I/we are wearing most of the time.
