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Originally Posted by wring
As I said in the post you quoted - it's more of the standing off to the side with a less than favorable attitude. You really don't see that this thread can be taken as a formal "tut tut you silly Americans and your pretend holidays" type of thing?
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No, I can't. Especially since it was asking about something in Australia, not America. I'd rather expected the Australian contingent to come in to discuss it, with some of our American friends popping in to either A) express surprise that it wasn't already firmly established in Australia the way it is in the US and B) offering some insights as to how an Americanised holiday had been exported in whole to a country traditionally disposed to British culture.
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Especially posting it when you did. Insulting behavior isn't simply calling some one names, you know.
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I don't follow you. I didn't post it on halloween, and I didn't post in the Raffoween forum.
That would have been insulting... even I can see that.
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I'm not saying this to make you feel unwelcome - it's more in the spirit of "do you know how your post is coming off to many folks?" If you meant no slam, please note that it certainly can be interpreted as same.
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I meant no slam, and I'm sorry if people took it that way. I was genuinely curious to hear people's thoughts on why an American holiday had been exported to Australia. And if people thought I was slamming the whole thing, would it have killed someone to asked a polite clarifying question instead of going straight to name-calling and insults?
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Putting it simply, I believe this thread would have had a different slant with two minor changes:
1. Not post it at the beginning of our litte festivities.
2. Watch the tone of the post, for example - Refraining from putting "event" in quotation marks - it had the tone, to me at least, as the monocle wearing Count, looking down his patrician nose at those lessers who would deign to play at childish things. As well as the first line where you state that it's not an 'actual' holiday rather A different (and less insulting) way to have said it would have been something like "I'm curious how Halloween traveled to Austrailia to become the celebrated holiday it appears to be here. There was no prior celebrations of the like during that season, it seems to have simply sprung up"
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I take your point, but I still don't think that excused the immediate hijacking and lack of civility from some of the posters. As I've said before, I'm in the middle of university exams and stuff and have been coming here in a (futile) effort to get a change of pace from all the study, and given that people here have proven their abilities to issue fluffy bunny hugs to people having stressful times (cf
Threnody's recent thread about work trouble) I foolishly thought I might find some sympathetic ears, kind words, and civil discussion here.
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Remember december? and everyone always called him polite (well, except for me). He wouldn't cuss, but cussing ain't the only way to be insulting (trust me, IRL, I"m a master at it). His posts would drip with sarcasm, talk about 'liberals' as if it were a disease (hear it in Rush's voice to get what I mean).
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Not familiar with the poster, sorry, and I don't follow US politics so I've got no idea what Rush sounds like or his views. Even so, from what you're saying, the guy had a looooong habit of doing it. I don't believe I have a long habit of disparaging halloween.
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Seriously, I'm not trying to insult you - if you thought so, sorry, that wasn't my intent. But you did in your OP come off as disapproving of silliness (which you've mentioned before), and if you don't want to come off as insulting, perhaps you might take a look at how your post may have appeared to others.
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That's understandable, and thank you for the apology (FTR, I did think you were trying to insult and belittle me). And even if I did come across as sounding disapproving (which I didn't intend to), my concern is the personal attacks from socks and people I've never interacted with as a response to that. I thought people here were better than that towards "established" posters, but evidently I was wrong.
As it is, right now, I think considerably less of these boards as a whole than I did a few days ago. I genuinely do not feel especially welcome on these boards, which hurts me because I'd like to participate more, but not if every single thing I post gets hijacked or turned into a personal attack.
Is there
anywhere on these boards (besides Q&A) where someone looking for serious discussions can post without fear of silliness? Because whilst I do enjoy reading some of the back-and-forth, often I'd like to ask serious questions and I don't enjoy having the first response to the thread being "Your mum!" or something equally stupid, with the thread carrying on in that direction.
At least that way, future understandings can be avoided... or at least, I hope so!
31st October 2009, 05:46 PM
Hybrid Mode
