[sumo] [apologetically off-topic] Bickering, Wisdom, and Whatnot

[Kaiopectate!]

Tricky subject: How to address and resolve off-topic and personal tangles, without adding to them?  Anything that you post about it will also be a meta-post, another off-topic message which can't possibly placate everyone and which is likely to offend someone.  As a person who tends to post divergent messages from time to time, and who has on occasion lit into others including Mark Batton and even you, Joshua, I try not to pile onto this type of thread any longer, but sometimes can't resist.  I think your message does a pretty creditable job in trying to change human nature (except you mentioned genitalia, which is typically not a good idea).  
   
  I feel pretty laissez-faire about flame wars -- to different degrees, I know and like everyone on this ML, including the crazy, the hostile and provocative, the burdened, the earnest, and the knowledgeable.  Many messages on this list are informative.  Flame wars are interesting, in a rubbernecking kind of way: Everything we say opens a window for others, except for words which shut them.
   
  It's possible to ward off all of the flak that flies in this ML, including the inappropriate stuff.  But the proportion of current irrelevancies does surprise me, considering the remarkable basho that is underway.  To me -- and what I have to say isn't particularly wise: this ML is a little world, a microcosm of the larger world, the larger world being one which we as individuals are led to believe we can't do much about.  I imagine that issues in that larger world affect our conduct here in both broad and specific ways.  So, it's pretty amazing that we can converse or behave ourselves at all.
   
  Keep moving forward, and keep doing your sumo.  The way you treat the people around you DOES have an impact on the larger world.
  

Joshua Maciel <joshua.maciel at gmail.com> wrote:
  Dearest list members,

I must be one of the younger people on here, as I don't know who many of you
are, I don't recall any yokozunas before the current one, and people keep
talking about decades which (for some unknown reason) existed before I
graced the earth with my presence.

So as I young lad of 26 who's looking at a board filled with veritable
venerated veterans of sumo fans, why is it that I feel like I'm watching a
bunch of small children bickering?

The one consolation I have is that as a 26 year-old, I can blame my youth
and impulsiveness for sending this wholly unecessary and potentially harmful
mail to the list, as I haven't gained the wisdom of dozens of years and
experiences dealing with people.

But the rest of you? Really -- what's your excuse?

Vindictive bickering and one-upsmanship makes this community look petty and
rude, and quite frankly, conduct unbecoming of adults. Someone mucked up,
they apologized, someone refused to accept that apology, so we get a
vitriol-filled response teeming with passive-aggressiveness?

As I am the type who likes to solve problems rather than fan the flames (at
least most of the time), may I propose that we add a new tag so that those
of us who feel so inclined can set up a filter?

Perhaps [senseless bickering] or [genitalia-measuring oneupsmanship] or
something along those lines?

Or how about we all just calm down and continue business as normal?

- Joshua "Doesn't Want to be Caught in the Sumolist Custody Battle" Maciel
_______________________________________________
Sumo mailing list
Sumo at webtrek.com
http://www.webtrek.com/mailman/listinfo/sumo