Consideration of other members when posting

[Guest guest]

Hi folks -

When you get a large group of people such as this group, you are going to have all kinds of unique personalities, situations and sensitivities - and I ask that each of you keep that in mind when posting messages and replies. Some people are more sensitive than others to criticism or what they might perceive as a slight, and that can be especially true when someone is hurting and trying to heal. I can relate to that because the almost constant pain from my indirect inquinal hernia often causes me to be in less than the sunniest and most tolerant of moods!

The reason I am posting this message is that we have had two new members from our group lately. One did so because they asked a question and instead of an answer they received the equivalent of "look it up yourself". Another left us because of what they perceived as needless bickering which begin with unwarranted criticism of another member's post. This has not been the first time such has happened and I am sure it will not be the last with group so large and diverse - but I surely do hope to minimize such instances.

I realize that we cannot please everyone and I don't want us walking on eggshells, but still - I really hate to think of people leaving a group I consider as family and possibly missing out on vital information they otherwise might have received because some of us posted before we stopped and thought about how others may have taken what we said.

We all tend to view others based on how we think and feel - that is only natural, but the world does not work that way and we aren't all the same. Things that you or I may not think twice about might have a quite different effect on others and so I ask each of you to take that thought and this message and reflect a bit on it for the future.

I shot an arrow into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For, so swiftly it flew, the sightCould not follow it in its flight.I breathed a song into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For who has sight so keen and strong,That it can follow the flight of song?Long, long afterward, in an oakI found the arrow, still unbroke;And the song, from beginning to end,I found again in the heart of a friend.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Hugs to all,

Tony