On Wednesday 20 November 2019 14:56:19 BorgLabs - Kate Draven wrote: I am actually a cat in real life. That's why I always do the opposite of what others want. I also sleep when others are awake, then stay up all night meowing my heart out, and often cough up furrballs. In my own view, I try to keep some balance here, and if it seems the conversational thread is about to go off the rails, I generally suggest taking it private and not bothering others with our inner weirdness. However, I believe that it is humanly impossible for us to keep things strictly business and technical, unless of course there are real control freaks here. Or maybe some of you are actually bots or trolls? (I am not naming names, but one of them looks a lot like myself sometimes.) If I offend anybody, then please forgive me; but as I said, none of use can possibly adhere to rule of "strictly business-technical conversations." If that must be so, then I would ask Felix, for example, to cut out his rant against evolution that is attached to his every single email; likewise, Gene would be forbidden from his political (or maybe anti-political) rant that is attached. But I indulge them both, because I have my own idiosyncrasies. And there are others here who do the same. For myself, it is interesting how often our disputes turn on what are actually underlying or hidden issues: for example, the differing points of view between those of us who are younger and those who are older; also between those who have money and resources (or the use of higher grade equipment due to their jobs, etc.) and those of us who build computers out of old parts. I upgrade when I can afford it (and am looking for a new SSD at present), but sometimes other people recommend solutions which are easy for them, but not viable for others. The different points of view are useful, though, because collective knowledge of the whole TDE users group makes it possible for each of us to advance our own individual knowledge. In any case, I still agree in general with the hard-liners: that we ought to take personal conversations elsewhere, or at least move them to separate threads. I just don't want these conversations to be limited to strictly technical and business matters, without friendly asides and glimpses into other people's lives. Otherwise, as I said, I must insist that everybody does the same, and then this will quickly devolve (not evolve) into a food fight. Anybody who wants can send me a email or we can chat sometimes. In the past I've had some fairly extensive private conversations with others (who may or may not wish to reveal themselves). Hereafter I'll attach my email and jabber/xmpp addresses; and when we start to go off-topic, I will direct others to contact me privately. Bill email doctor_contendo(a)zoho.com jabber/xmpp dr_mojo_contendo(a)hot-chilli.net