The only bad side I saw in it was from the people who dug in, got comfy and sincerely seemed to enjoy smacking MachineClaw and getting others more upset and then annoyed they lost a reason to slam someone and be angry. - byAnton

waitaminute!

rereading the whole thread (yes, I am that weird) I haven't noticed a SINGLE slapping comment till you guys said that it was actually a joke. After this things quickly got ugly. There was a lot of disagreeing, sure, but since WHEN disagreeing with someone's opinion is called smaking?

And, I am sorry to add that posting that topic meter didn't help to calm people down either. For me, personally, it was a not-so-delicate hint at the whole bunch of disagreeing people as a lynching mob. Maybe I (like most of the forumites) was " making up stuff that was never said." but some things are pretty obvious without saying. Like, did I write directly: "your joke sucked and left a foul taste in my mouth"? No, I didn't, till now and even NOW it is, like, theoretical question that has nothing to do with what I really mean, isn't it? ;o)

People tend to read between the lines and don't forget that many of us are non-native English speakers that have different mentality and see things a bit from a different angle.

Michal
4blueyes