James: It's best to properly punctuate and separate words when you're being an unnecessary dick on a message board. Proper punctuation, spelling, and grammar make posts more effective. Just sayin'.
Tsk-tsk to that misplaced comma.
That quote wasn't me being an intentional dick. He really had misunderstood what I had written, and I was making sure that he understood that I knew that the discourse had no animosity in it. If you or JMike took offense at anything that I posted in this thread (or any other thread), we can discuss it in private messages if you would like. Having said that, don't take that as an apology. Nothing that I wrote here is inappropriate, rude, or mean-spirited.
With the ease of obtaining another person's ideas (N.B. I didn't say "information") in the world today, made even easier by search engines like Google, it is easy to not only find what seems like pertinent information, but researched and well-discussed ideas. I have absolutely zero knowledge about the Boxer rebellion in China, but thanks to Google I can do thirty seconds of searching, and easily convince anyone that didn't know much about it that I was an expert. This is the essence of what the moderators on this forum have been ranting against recently: People with google-knowledge (and sometimes not even that) of various subjects posing as experts. Having an endless amount of ideas at your fingertips doesn't mean that you necessarily have the understanding and experience to really OWN that material. I could read all I wanted on the internet about building a house, but there is no way that I could construct a house on my first try as well as someone who has been doing it for years.
I have no problem with either you or JMike, and for all I know, you're both the tops. The intent behind my posts was simply to help him not fall into the pitfalls of citing google as a reference, or assuming that something that comes up as an early link in google is either relevant or correct.
--James
P.S. I give everything I post a second read before I submit, but not everything gets caught. Frankly, I really couldn't care less if I catch every errant comma or double hit button, as every one of my posts is legible. However, if you are trying to rebuke a person on the internet for ideas that they have posted, attacking their grammar might not be the best choice, especially if the best thing you can come up with is a comma in the wrong place. Normally when you attack a person's grammar, you are trying to imply that they are either stupid or lazy.
