Thanks everyone for your insightful comments. I'll have to re-read them to fully absorb what everyone is saying.

pfr, I don't think that the intention of this thread was for women only. As mg has stated gender is not necessarily the issue.

The problem as I see it is that one particular person (and one hanger-on) has been making some annoying personal comments and following certain people from thread to thread. In my observations there seemed to be a basis where women were being targeted more than men. So for me it seemed that gender was part of the issue. I think this thread was opened out of sheer frustration.

All the tactics I tried to employ seemed to make no difference.

Thanks Jeri for the reminder that it is the actions and not the person who should be addressed. After some weeks of this frustrating behaviour I think it was getting more difficult for me to to separate the person from the actions.

If we can recognise our own weaknesses and strengths then we can usually move forward, onward and upward hopefully. If a person obstinately refuses to recognise personal weaknesses and persists in the same behaviour then no progress is made.

George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Or restated, those who cannot learn from the past ...

Or, if we keep doing the same things we will get the same results.

I'm hopeful that we can all contribute positively to Mudcat in our own unique ways.