Thin skins [Was: Restoration technique [Was: Re: Bay Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000]]

[Mouse]

> What Jay said: [...]

> And for newcomers he offered some background [...]

> At least that's what I read; where did you read anything like what
> you're replying to below?

I have a suspicion I may have some idea what happened.

I don't for a moment think this is what Jay intended.  But what he
wrote did strike me as being rather like "my server is bigger than your
server, so shut up" - that is to say, while I've been here long enough
to know that is (shall we say) extremely unlikely to be what Jay meant,
the text was rather like what would have resulted if that _had_ been
what he'd meant, and most of the differences were things Jay didn't
say.  And a lot of people find it hard to notice unsaid things.

So, while Jay didn't outright say (and, I repeat, I don't believe he
meant) anything like any of

> ... "Jay's the only person allowed to respond" ??
> ... "everything you are running is a joke, waste of time" ??
> ... "personal attack against me and my level of skill" ??
> ... "I will leave if asked" ??

I have no trouble seeing how someone new(ish) to the list could read
any or all of those as subtext below what Jay did write.

> Where does this come from?

I don't know.  I speculate that it comes from having been on the net
long enough to have run into plenty of cases of "well _my_ $THING is
$BETTER than _your_ $THING" (which are depressingly common) and
developed reflexive reactions to them, combined with not having been
here long enough to have learnt that that's not something Jay would
say.  Or maybe even just having been tired or stressed enough to have
failed to suppress the reflexive reaction.

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