Brent apologizes

[The Great Quail]

Brent writes,

>I'm surprised he didn't post the whole e-mail.
>Back in the Paleolithic Period of the internet (early 90's), there used to
>be this thing called "netiquette".
>I guess Mr. Millison has never heard about that one.

Brent, sad to say, Mr. Millison has a long and distinguished record 
of using private off-list correspondence on-list. It's one of the 
reasons I no longer post privately to him. I must say, the first time 
he did it to me shocked me -- I knew he was a negative presence on 
the List, but I didn't realize he also played dirty. (Of course, in 
Doug's world, you are the one who plays dirty for voicing 
objectionable things to him in private.)

Also, ignoring Doug usually doesn't work. First of all, it's hard to 
actually ignore him, because echoes of what he says appear in far to 
many non-Doug posts. Second of all, as Paul says, Doug's insults, 
fabrications, distortions, and so on *should* be addressed; otherwise 
he will expand, like an evil species of kudzu, to entwine himself 
over the List and turn it into a reflection of his own views. While 
that doesn't excuse the sniping and all-out flame wars, I am 
convinced that with some reason and calmness, most of Doug's wilder 
assertions may be contested, as long as one doesn't follow him into 
the world of escalating personal insults. (Though I confess I have 
not always followed my own advice.) Personally, I belive you have 
done quite well so far -- you have stated your case, called Doug out 
on his dirty tricks, and then disengaged before he dragged you down 
into the mud.

--Quail