The written word. There it is. In black and white. With no human voice inflection, no way of knowing is this a 'tongue in cheek' remark or deadly serious.
Have we not read emails and misunderstood their message, or got a text and been equally mystified.
Having been a moderator on umpteen websites over the years I've seen all kinds of craziness, it happens. Wherever humans are involved there will be be that 'organic interface' for error, or personal interpretation.
Also in any community be it a nudist beach or online community they'll be a whole spectrum of opinions. It would be boring if we where all drones thinking the same.
For me if you met me in person I think you'd quickly establish I'm pretty easy going by nature and laid back, lifes to short to get uptight in my opinion.
Just an observation.
thanks for the shares, and yes the more the merrier! 🙂
Great observation/s, and I've taken the liberty of tweeting this out because I think more people need to see your valid remarks and leave their own comments too. Please share widely!
Yes, indeed, Kev. We've had flames on here, and will no doubt again, where people have 'taken the huff' over something that somebody said. Sometimes the comment has been intended as 'sarcastic', and other times it's intended as 'tongue in cheek' and a friendly rib.
It can be hard to tell, especially when you've (we've) not built up a rapport of online trust and respect, yet. That's partly why we have the http://www.naktiv.net/emoticons/ of course, to make it easy to attach a smile to your comment and lighten the mood a bit. 🙂