Dear David F,

I love reading your posts.
You're one of the reasons that
make me glad to continue to be part
of this forum. Thank You.

Dear Examinator,

You always know the right thing to say
at the right time. But then you always
were very perceptive.
It is appreciated!

I once had a lover who was Estonian rather Lithuanian, but Foxy's description of Sam fits her well - except that she was very blonde, rather than a redhead. Since I'm more of a Golden Retriever than a Pomeranian, I neither had problems with her legs nor her hair.

R0bert's right - people should be nicer to each other. Besides which, I've always found that women feel more welcome when you're nice to them.

Men too, now that I think of it :)

Gee I have enjoyed this thread so far. Some comments were very funny indeed- eg. Foxy< " Perhaps we could have these repeat offenders tagged with - "Beware - Alpha Dog!" every time they post?"
I was not quite sure who she was talking about though? :)
'Septic seemed to know.

I don't believe there should be quotas re numbers of female/male contributions to these pages.

It should be up to the contributors as to which sex they want to be anyway- under the cloak of the online names they choose.

I am still not sure of the sex of some of the regular contributors, let alone the occasional ones!

I would just like to encourage people to report any abusive or nasty posts as quickly as possible to Graham, so that he, in his wisdom, can decide if that comment should remain here to offend others.

Suzeonline:"I would just like to encourage people to report any abusive or nasty posts as quickly as possible to Graham"

And just think, "no one need ever know your name"...

Has Australia really become a nation of intellectually-bereft cowardly informers like Suzie here?

What is "offensive" to some may also be of vital interest. I'm sure that Peter Garrett, Kevin Rudd and the Unions regard any mention of the insulation debacle as "offensive"; should they then be able to demand that public discussion be curtailed?

I'm sure that many women who look forward to a ride on a feminist-inspired gravy train regard discussion of feminism in anything other than glowing terms offensive, but what of the 50% of the populace who aren't feminine?

Suzie, I recommend you HTFU.

I think that OLO would be much more welcoming to women if posters like Antiseptic stopped posting egregiously nasty comments directed at them. Suzeonline is quite correct - unless people alert the moderators to hateful and insulting comments they are unlikely to be aware of them.

Haters rely on people's reluctance to report them in order to continue and escalate their abuse, which at OLO often is directed at women.

When someone attaches unkindness to criticism,
they're angry.

Angry people need to criticize as an outlet
for their anger. That's why we can reject
unkind criticism because unkind criticism is
never part of a meaningful critique. It's
purpose is not to teach, or help, its purpose
is to punish.

Discussions aren't supposed to be battles. When
your discussion slips into being dysfunctional,
well there's another just around the corner.

People don't have to face insults.