> Shorn of its wittiness, here is Brunnen-G's message:
>
> "Many of you are dullards and are thus unwelcome here. You have ruined this forum, which is unsurprising because you are immature. Regrettably, we superior people are not able to simply kick you out, so our only recourse is to work harder at posting content that pleases us. It will be difficult to regain an acceptable signal-to-noise level because of all the drivel, but perhaps we can make our job easier by first insulting you into quiescence."

That's not quite what B-G was getting at, I don't think. Partially, yes, but not entirely. I doubt B-G was trying to openly insult anyone as such, but more reach out to those who she wasn't trying to insult. If you get my meaning. Half spiky stick, half cry for help. On any other forum, that post would almost certainly have been flamed to death by people taking it as a personal insult and as a claim to superiority. Here, it comes across more as a call for order. Much as how a besuited type walking into a nightclub and asking them to turn it down a bit would be killed in many exciting ways, but the same person in an expensive restaurant quieting the teenyboppers shouting into their mobile phones would be met with support from their peers. Please excuse the length of that sentence, and I wish you luck in decoding it. The Forum is that restaurant slap-bang in the internet city filled with vomit-coated nightclubs. B-G probably wasn't wearing a suit when she posted, but the metaphor (or was it a simile? I forget what I typed) holds.

> This leads me to raise an admittedly rhetorical question: does possession of wit and/or charm excuse one from the duties of common decency?

No. But common decency is the polite term for putting up with something, and everyone has their breaking point. I'm just surprised that Rinkies' were this high.

Matthew