4356  tango & trash talking

Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2006 15:34:02 -0400
From: "WHITE 95 R" <white95r@hotmail.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] tango & trash talking
To: tango-l@mit.edu

A long time ago we used to have "spirited" discussions on the tango-l...
They were so "spirited" that the moderators (or censors) became quite active
in silencing the participants in those discussions. Anyway, I've had the
opportunity to meet and talk in person with several of the most vociferous
posters and locuatious contributors. Since I did not know them before hand
and they did not know me, we met as just regular folks who shared a common
interest. I found most of these people to be rather shy and not at all as
belligerent as they appeared in the list. Amazingly enough they did not even
mention some of these topics that were so passionately dicussed in the
tango-l.

As it turns out, I think I've made friends with some of them and generally
had a pleasant time with all of them in person. Sure, some of the most
erudite sounding people turned out to be just regular, intermediate level
dancers as far as I could see. So much for learning to dance tango from the
posts in the tango-l... There is one thing that I do remember well. Although
some people engage in these "discussions" for fun and they don't mind the
poking fun or ridiculing others in the list, others take the stuff more
seriously and get a bad taste in their mouth about people before they even
meet them. It's good to remember that just populating one's posts with
smilies or disclaimers does not fully take the sting out of cruel or
critical words.

Best regards,

Manuel