....they thought there were people there, answering posts, who thought they were very clever....

Now don't go spoiling all the fun! I just love to pontificate on any subject, whether I know anything about it or not, and Mudcat gives me a place to do that.

So I will switch to my best pontificating mode.

There are postings now and then that get very emotional and state someone's views agressively. Now that's OK if we agree with those views, but there is a tendency to get annoyed if we don't agree.

I think most of us are mature enough to deal with this and still be friends. I know I've disagreed with many points of view that I've read in postings, but I still know that the people who made those postings are my friends. I know they still will continue being friends even though I may have posted something that is contrary to their opinions.

Due to the medium which we are using, writing tends to be somewhat terse and always come across less friendly than intended. It's something that we all have to make allowances for. Always assume that a message is intended to be friendly, it won't hurt if your wrong, will it.

There will always be one or two people who can't seem to deal with us and all our imperfections and if they leave we will miss them. I still miss Elsie.

So ask your friend to stay, we really do mean to be friendly. But we do have strong opinions about almost everything and we like to hear your opinions as well as to express our own.

You're probaly right about the language issue now that more younger people are joining us. I'll try to keep it reasonable. I dunno tho' most yougsters nowadays swear more than I do :-)

Bert. (who does go on a bit)