Ha!

I'm not using Mudcat as much, and though I still read the BS section and post to a few, I spend more time "upstairs" these days, mostly reading and occasionally posting.

The moment came for me a while back when I accidentally lobbed a standard Mudcat retort back--on a scholarly thread. Geez. The target wrote back channel and said he didn't think he deserved that response, and I apologized and told him that because we were discussing one of the "hot button" topics that I was just too quick on the draw (it was--had to do with hunting).

I decided right then to take to heart what I already understood: that Mudcat can be a bad influence if you let it. It's too easy to let people with nothing better to do BUT argue drag you into those verbal slugfests. Do that often enough here and it becomes a habit elsewhere. I can't afford to start any those kinds of pitched battles in my scholarly lists, so I have mostly just been reading those, also, not posting much. Breathing space.

SRS