Neil Faulkner wrote:
Tossing a bit of whimsy into a serious thread strikes me as a perfectly natural thing to do - I am never more serious than when I'm joking. Humour can be both a way to make a point, and to defuse tension; it's long been a technique in both debate and education for those reasons.
As I hope I've made clear enough by now, I can't argue with this. It's turning the thread *into* whimsy that gets me heated.
Yes, I follow you. And while those who are pointing out that nobody owns a thread are technically correct, there's also nothing that prevents those of us in a whimsical mood from being thoughtful enough to allow those of us in a serious mood to have a serious conversation.
The problem for me here is that while I might follow the distinction in theory, it may be harder to recognize in practice. If it appears that I'm involved in a silly splinter thread that branches from a serious topic, I'll try to remember to change the header; if you see me dragging a thread completely off-topic unaware, you can point it out to me. Fair?
Mistral