"Post as if you are talking to the thousands that will read you, not one numbskull."
This is a very great point!
I had this brought home to me the other night when I was in a constant conversation on one thread with 2-3 people who had difficulty applying plain logic to explain some people's actions. It was a long and difficult task and in the end - I wasn't sure I had made any headway. Like you said Bob, I was more focused on the 2-3 people than who else was reading what I said.
The following day I received a private message thanking me for persisting with my comments on a certain thread. They said, "I appreciate your efforts to keep pounding the truth - and I want you to know many others do too".
While I was busy focused on a few people, there were others cheering me on that I was not even aware of. While I've always believed a lot of people read these threads, this really brought it home to me.
We have to stop taking things so personally. Sometimes these people bait us just to watch us explode - it's a game - and we should stop allowing them to be in charge of the rules.
Bingo.