Dale, you're certainly not the first person to ever post a "divergence" here; that in and of itself isn't all that noteworthy. BUT--there is a deeper issue apparent, and it says rather a lot about you: that is that you continue to post in ways that you know will annoy people. True, compared to a few people we have had do this, your annoyances are minor indeed; but why do it at all?

If anyone is upset by some unexpected response(s) early on, I strongly recommend letting that person(s) know; I would just about bet money that at least 99% of the regular people here would be willing to straighten out a misunderstanding, and apologize.

However--you have been told again and again that certain kinds of things you post annoy people, yet you continue to do them...and then point out, oh, for ex., that you get called unsavory names, as though: 1.) you are surprised that that's happened, or 2.) that the person(s) is mean for doing so.

That absolutely will not wash, with me. I am happy to give anybody a first, second, probably third, and maybe even fourth or fifth chance in special circumstances. But when someone clearly understands that what they're doing is unwelcome and they continue to do it anyway, well--at that point I really don't want anything further to do with them, to tell you the truth. I don't understand why anyone would do this, any more than I understand what makes people vandalize. And come to think of it, this kind of thing is sort of virtual vandalism, I suppose.

And while I'm on my soapbox, on to another pet grievance of mine: people who come on here new (or perhaps sometimes, not even so new), tell us we ought to change and do things his way (we've never had a her do that, in my recollection), and then berate us for not doing it. So I would like to take this opportunity to thank ALL of you new people who have not done that!