My mother in law claims that she has a right to say what the things she means. The reality is that she just says mean things.

Nobody has a right to be a troll and then claim that its just their way (I know you said that and Earl did not.) I'm getting tired of people who take their belief that its their rightful place: on email lists, on message boards, on the highways, etc. Last night at Borders book shop there was some lady who stepped in the front of a line of fifteen people who had patiently waited. Nobody even pointed the end of the line to her. They just "took it" from her.

No one has a right to be tactless to others, and excuse it by calling it "their style". On message boards, this is how flame wars start, and its how moderators can limit conversation to a select few of the elite, and exclude conversation from everyone else.

And don't tell me I don't know. I spend too much time moderating and encouraging a message board with more than a 1000 participants, in another field altogether. I've had to tell or remove posts from people who are quite famous and clearly giants in the field because they made tactless comments, that caused people to leave the message board because of them.

eric j