Speaking as a listmember...

At 02:00 PM 3/25/2011, Marius Strom wrote:
>the egregious stuff, but the little stuff should slide. As an
>example, in my opinion the random f-bomb on the list (or
>questionably agreeable acronym) is fully appropriate. I'd bet we'd
>be hard-pressed to find someone here who hasn't uttered something
>shrewd to their own ride once-in-a-while. Granted, members of the
>community should use the same consideration that they'd use in their
>day-to-day life, while out walking on the street. It's not
>appropriate to string together a series of f-bombs targeted at
>someone for the sake of doing it, but it is appropriate to cuss at
>the f'ing design of the cooling tower (as an example) :).

The way it was expressed by previous moderators was that you should
be able to have your little kid reading over your shoulder without
worrying about what he (she) would see, or what you'd have to
explain.  Or to say another way, G-rated.

Now the question has nothing at all to do with what we say on our own
time.  That's a straw man but since I've heard it a bunch of times in
this discussion (did you think you started it? <g>) it brings up the
first of two generational questions I wish to pose.  This isn't
pointed at you, Marius, but at an entire generation or perhaps two,
and not just here on the list:  Can't you kids [generic reference by
old fogeys for anyone ten years or more younger than they are]
understand the difference between what you do at home or on the
street, and what you do in another man's living room?  A lot of us
old folks swear like sailors.  Some of us *were* sailors.  When we
write back and forth to each other we swear.  But we don't swear on
the list, and it doesn't bother us not to, and it does bother us to hear it.

The second generational question is this:  The people having children
these days are the same generation(s) who seem to have lost any
concept of taboo language.  On the basis that it's their kids, is it
time for us old fogeys to let be and let the present child-bearing
generation define what's acceptable language here?

a) Does that generation agree that it's fine for their kids to be
reading swears on the list?

b) If even a few disagree, does that make it not ok (in my opinion, yes)?

c) Supposing the entire childbearing population of the list agree
that swears are no problem for their kids - how does that affect the
overall civility of the list and the comfort of the older and/or more
strait-laced volks here?

Thoughts?

Yrs,
David