Please consider before posting or misreading other posts!

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GizmoGuy411
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Please consider before posting or misreading other posts!

Post by GizmoGuy411 »

Hello All,

Message forums, blogs, Instant Messaging, cell phone text messaging, and similar electronic messaging has created a medium where the command of one's written language has taken on a new urgency.

As others here have already commented, we all need to be careful on both sides of the messaging equation.

While the youngest of our participants here may have an innate understand of this process, many of us who are slightly older have needed to learn this process while adults. I'm sure there was a similar adaption necessary a century or so ago, when face to face communication gave way to faceless voice only communication. While they lost facial and body language, we have now lost tone and vocal inflection to boot!

When I compose a message, I often re-write it several times before and sometimes even AFTER I have submitted it. I try to read my postings from someone else's point of view to see if the message could be misunderstood in any way. Am I always successful? Nope..... especially when I compose something at 3am, or moments before I must be out the door. Regretfully, our posts sometimes, are misread, despite how well we thought we composed them.

On the other side of the equation, when I read someone else's post, I try to be as thick-skinned as possible and try to think of all the ways the post was actually intended. Often well indented humor and sarcasm in posts also gets misread. While it usually helps to know the person personally, to better understand the tone of their posts, even then the intent of the message can evade us.

In the last few months, a few misinterpretations have unfortunately occurred here in our forums.

A few of us here regularly trade good-humored jabs at each other from time to time. For the most part, we know well how to read each other. I just hope first time readers of such messages take that into account, and do not think we are being mean or otherwise maligned.

Just to make THIS message clearer. I post this to "ALL" as a reminder of how we need to consider this means of communication. This post actually started out in another topic as a reply to a recent post from a member. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it needed to dissociated from any particular topic thread, and be in one of its own.

Another suggestion is the old "count to 10" before responding that my father taught me. In our case, counting 10 minutes or even 10 hours sometimes may be in order, before firing off a reply.

Last week after being away for a couple of days, I logged in to discover a whole thread of messages I thought were rather unfortunate to have been posted here. My immediate reaction was, how did all this transpire in my two day absence. My next reaction was, how do I weigh in on this, as it was all rather puzzling. My eventually comment at the time was, that I was simply confused by the whole event. I suppose this message is in part my longer reaction to that other other recent events.

I'm sure some sunshine and less mud will also make us all much happier!

Here's to a drier and sunny Spring!
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GoodDog
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Re: Please consider before posting or misreading other posts

Post by GoodDog »

:!: Well said. :!:
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Stumpy75
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Re: Please consider before posting or misreading other posts

Post by Stumpy75 »

:idea: Couldn't have said it better. :idea:
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cheechgang
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Re: Please consider before posting or misreading other posts

Post by cheechgang »

Guilty...
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KCBoom
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Re: Please consider before posting or misreading other posts

Post by KCBoom »

Amen GG. I know I was guilty of some mud slinging a few weeks back. Even posted in a sarcastic manner, I feel badly about it now. Sometimes it's best to just take the high road. I sent a PM to the person I may have helped to not want to geocache anymore. I apologized and I hope they'll come back to caching someday.
[url=http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?A=171891:wp2yq79j][img:wp2yq79j]http://img.groundspeak.com/stats/img.aspx?txt=N.K.A.W.T.G&uid=c3580c56-8c1a-4d3d-b01a-c8a2ebe63e06&bg=1[/img:wp2yq79j][/url:wp2yq79j]
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