dealing with insulting posts

[poza@gol.com (Shari & Tito Poza)]

Well, Shari's been involved in most of this, but I can't just sit here and
watch without saying something....

Obviously I'm pissed that my wife has been called "petty and small-minded"
for attempting to encourage people to follow netiquette, but getting pissed
does no good, so I will attempt to look at this analytically.

I appreciate Gunnar's sincere request that a flame war be avoided, and rest
assured that no flames have ever been, and will never be, sent to the list
from this address.  No matter _what_ the provocation.  All it does is
reward the original flamer, which in this case is Mr. Bolling.  What he
sent to the list was a flame, pure and simple.  That should be obvious to
all.

The question is, how will the list members handle the situation, in order
to avoid such flames in the future?  Do we ignore it?  Do we send messages
to the effect that flames are not welcome?  I suppose every individual will
react however they find appropriate, but I do hope that such acts will not
be in any way encouraged.  It seems to me that the question of how to deal
with flames wouldn't be a bad topic for discussion, since there've been a
few in the past month and there are obviously many who are not happy with
them, as was expressed in the private e-mail sent to Masumi last month
which he re-posted.

I also hope that no one will suggest or insinuate that Shari was in any way
responsible for provoking Mr. Bolling's flame.  Shari's personality is
direct, candid and forthright but not insulting.  She doesn't soft-pedal
stuff, and maybe that annoys some people.  However, anyone is more than
welcome to respond to her equally directly, and that's fine, but what this
guy said was totally unwarranted.  If you look at the preceding messages,
two people weren't happy with what she said, but they both just said
variations on "_I'm_ happy that Masumi warned us about the virus,"  which
does not respond to her point.  Mr. Bolling didn't like what she said, so
instead or arguing it logically--or at all--he exaggeratedly praised the
actions she criticized and threw in a few insults.  Such action speaks for
itself, and its author.  I suggest to Mr. Bolling the following: if Shari's
comments offend you so much that you resort to this kind of behavior, may I
strongly suggest that you simply kill/delete any incoming mail from the
list which bears the address poza@gol.com   This would surely spare you,
and everyone, further aggravation.

I would really like to hear from people about this--hopefully, publicly.

---Tito