Since the party who started the thread is not a Mudcat member, there is no way to send a PM to him, which I would have done. Since they want to drum up business, suggesting they do it in a way that looks professional is a utilitarian sort of response. It is preferable to me to contact an unknown party through Mudcat rather than writing to the personal email listed at the end (anticipating that rejoinder).

Kat knows better than to start squabbling in the threads, and I hope she knows I have no argument with her, but don't appreciate her "mom voice" in this instance. That tone does not calm anything, it irritates.

Guests who behave like trolls in one place then go about posting nasty retorts everywhere else to get even are an annoyance we have had to live with in the open society at Mudcat. If you're teaching your children to be as intolerant as yourself, as you were when you were abusing list members on the thread where people who wish to lose weight were discussing strategies and progress, then your children will be trolls too.