Warik said:
I know how to present my opinions. Though I've said before that school is not as important as people think, I've written countless excellent persuasive papers for advanced composition classes. Like they always say in writing class, "you must consider the audience." If I were writing a speech for the public on the issue of gays and suicide, I would have to be "empathic" or hire someone to be "empathic" for me because I know about the ignorance and quick-to-label behavior that exists in the general public. Say something mean about somebody, even if it's true, and you're automatically labeled a bigot and a "fucking idiot." Woohoo. Given the fact that my conversations with and against Elite members in the past have proven to be somewhat intelligent, I didn't think I had to sugar-coat everything. Then again, I've never really seen you post before, so I didn't anticipate that you would participate and have your feelings hurt.
-Warik
That's somewhat disingenous, given that we had a big back and forth only a day or two ago (where you chose not to advance much in the way of a justifiction for your points nor to directly answer my points, despite the fact that I was posting pretty calmly at that point). Also, it ignores that fact that I posted on *this* thread long before you did. Did you actually read the whole thread before posting to it?
At any rate, I do feel I owe you an apology for calling you a fucking idiot last night. I'm coming down with something and even snapped at my boss this morning over just about nothing. That has nothing to do with you, and I'm sorry, and I hope you'll forgive me for that. I'm going home sick in a bit.
I do, however stand by the substance of what I said last night, and I submit that you did, in a sense, fail to consider your audience adequately. I think a thread where people are talking about friends that died deserves a bit more empathy than you have shown. You can mock us and say that we are oversensitive and by saying you didn't realize you needed to sugar coat your words, but jesus christ, this is people talking about friends who died. I have had friends commit suicide myself, and it's not something that stops feeling bad quickly.
I also think that, as a moderator, you have a responsibility to be a bit more careful than the average poster. I admit, you didn't descend to the name calling I did, but I do think you stirred things up in an extremely negative way, whether intentionally or not. I think this happens quite frequently with threads that you post on. Could it not be the case that maybe you need to reconsider your audience and the way you approach it?
Wyst