[Boots13]

Originally Posted by Linus

Online conversations have sometimes been a challenge for me. I'm often a visual person and picking up facial/body clues from others often helped me determine if something I said was wrong, funny or misunderstood. So how do we resolve this challenge between "the reader" and "the poster" when things truly go awry?

Thoughts? Opinions? Rants? ?

So many lessons learned ! And I'm still learning. I too am visual !

I have limited my knee-jerk reactions and have tried to be much more deliberate in my answers...and I use exclamation points and smilies to try to convey an image of lightheartedness. But I was truly surprised to learn, from a dear friend, that I have a snarky rep(or at the least a snarky sense of humor) online !!! I gathered that the abruptness of my posts, or perhaps a dry sense of humor would garner that impression.

I try to operate from a "me" place...how I feel and what Ithink so that my opinions aren't projected onto a poster that provoked a thought or a desire to share an experience.

But I am also at the ready to apologize if I feel I've offended anyone. And because it can go sideways in a matter of a post or two..I try to be on top of a conversation that I've engaged in and I try to be objective and not subjective over my emotional responses to some subjects.

Also, sometimes my work hours are daunting and I'm away from the computer - which I'm afraid lends to an air of inaccessability..when in actuality it is my career obligation that has taken precedence over my ability to remain in a conversation.

So, with all this in mind, I try to be kind and I want to be supportive in my responses. Rather than inflammatory and overtly opinionated...

I love the wide array of smilies that we can chose from!