[beyond the sea]

Exactly. Just like e-mail, it is difficult to tell the tone of something you're just reading on a message board.

Yes, most of us cannot write well enough to be totally understood (not meant to be critical, just honest). Something is always lost on the written page.

We should all just slow down and stop making so many suppositions about others' ideas before getting it clear.

I think there is a lot of defensive-ness (is that a word?) going around.

Yes there is. But unfortunately that defensiveness sometimes manifests itself as offense.

People aren't ALWAYS trying to insult or ridicule.

Certainly not.

[RushCrush]

All of this fits in nicely to my theory that low self esteem is the root of all evil :)