Some wise words... I think that many of us can take something away from that, be it moderator or user... I may only be a humble Locomotion Moderator but I consider my role to be fairly decent and important... yet I also consider those users to be just as important - my customers, if you will... If I don't know the customer well, I won't make a joke. If someone gets offended, I apologise... it's good etiquette.GoneWacko wrote:Lately it has become my 'philosophy' that people can only say things as a joke or sarcastic comment when it in some way reflects their opinion.
While I have since then found out that this does not always hold true, there are certainly cases where this observation *does* seem to apply. Without wishing to side with anyone or wishing to offend anyone, I will use Jonty's statement as an example of this. Mostly because he's already been flamed for making the statement in the first place.
In my opinion, saying "sounds like you're jealous" at the very least means that you are feeling proud about whatever you have that others don't. The thought of showing off about it did come into your mind, but you wisely decided not to.
However, the way I interpret it, your sarcastic comment was an indirect if not direct result from the line of thought.
I might be entirely wrong about this, though. All I know is that the above holds true for me: There have been plenty of times where I've jokingly called people things because that's actually what my opinion of them happened to be. Not *every* joke is a concealed form of criticism, though. Plenty of jokes or sarcastic comments come from sheer sense of humour.
I think many of us can always improve - such is a progressive role that we all play. The question is - can many of us quietly and discreetly identify ways in which to improve and take measures in order to do so before others must point out to us the error of our own ways?
As for me, I hope I could do myself, but I'm never afraid to take the critisism of others. Feel free to PM me though if you have some (serious) critique to make...
