[PUP] Human behavior

[Scott E. Bulger]

Peter said:  Am I right, but has this list been infected of late with
exposure to
some (shock, horror) examples of normal human behavior and its accompanying
normal frailty?

Scott sighs and response:  Here's the problem,

Email as a communication medium really pretty much sucks (not as much as
catamarans :).  You can't put inflection on words, you can't emphasize
phrases, you can't use subtle queues that humans use to fully communicate.
Also, recent research suggests the brain processes written communication
with different defense mechanisms being active then those used with spoken
communication.  This can lead to unwanted interaction that takes time to
mediate and manage.

When I put a Vice President at Washington Mutual Bank up for sale on Ebay it
was a joke.  When I showed it to my boss, he understood it was a joke and
laughed out loud, said it was the funniest thing he ever saw.  When it
spread around the office (well the entire U.S. really) and the VP eventually
saw it, somehow it was no longer a joke?  I didn't understand how anyone
could think it was real, but a week later I had an interview with HR and I
was shown the door (well the elevator actually).  Anyway the point is that I
made a simple comment yesterday about my wife's role in vetoing or approving
the living accommodations of the boat we selected.  I was taken to task as
being sexist.  It's hard enough to keep a forum on task, much less address
the administrative duties of a list like this.  The T&T list has 4 admins
for 1,700+ people, this forum has one.  So, while human interaction is
normal, and a part of any forum, it would help me out to a great degree if
we try to consider others in our communication and seek to minimize the
sideline discussions that all to frequently crop up on other lists.

Oh, one very important reason this is also true, several of our key
subscribers are accessing the forum over pay per bit links (as I will be
shortly).  I hate to think I just spent .75 of Dave's money for him to read
me droll on about being fired from Washington Mutual.  I do hope there is
some value in this.

So, Peter, your contributions are welcome!  I do have a sense of humor, I
can laugh with the rest of them.  I also have to mitigate the issues behind
the scene that many of you never see.  So, sorry to those of you that have
no interest in this, and to those that do, if we want to continue this
discussion it must have some kind of connection to Passagemaking or it
should wind down.  Thanks!

Scott Bulger, PUP List Admin