Now what?

It’s been my experience that most conflict comes from misunderstanding. A good mediator is a good translator.

It’s kind of like being the “assistant” at a stud farm. Sometimes the two parties need a little help getting into position and aligning their interests, but once you do that, you can step aside and let the two of them take it from there.

Glad I could be of assistance.

Thanks, podrock. I can work with that. Stay tuned.

Lindy could too…she has tons of friends…that is what I meant Pod…

I am sorry for having a ‘tude…but…I’ll probably exude a tude again…I am a pain in the ass that way.

Jody, if you’ve people you know who have tried to register, let me know their user name and I can send them a password manually.

On the Space Board, which we opened up to non-registed commenting, I get the comment window, but it lacks a post button, so no joy there.

Showing the source of a post, and the type of link if it’s not to text, is always a good idea. And I think that an excerpted paragraph is such a good idea I’d call it critical.

The problem with herelinks is that you force the reader to go to another site and load another Web page to get even the slightest inkling about what’s there. In essence, you’re not asking people to read another page, you’re telling them to, or just skip the whole thing, take it or leave it. Like I said in my reply to Jody, I respond badly to what I perceive as high-handed treatment, and I refuse to go along with it.

Which is why an excerpt is doing yourself a favor. If the link is to a news article, the author has probably already done you the service of summarizing the article in the first paragraph, and it’s then natural to follow the introductory excerpt with a “more” link. Good for the reader, and it respects the rights of the piece’s author through correct fair use.

With opinion pieces, when I want to provide the seed for a discussion of it, I’ll look for a hook excerpt, something that perhaps asserts the main point of the argument, and direct the reader to the original for more. There’s usually one point that grabbed me and made me think, and it’s natural, to me, to want to talk about that particular thing.

I’m not about to try to tell you how to debate, Tom. You’ve been at it as long as I have and you have a distinctive style of your own. But I won’t hesitate to offer suggestions, one veteran to another.

I haven’t noticed an excessive amount of n/t posts from you, Rob. I’m sorry to hear that you’re short of energy and that writing isn’t coming easy. You know how I worry…what’s up?

Glad it’s still a blast, and I’m still determined to keep it that way. I may not always express it well, but that’s what these well-intentioned “let’s do it better” posts are all about.