The only thing worse than a bit of profanity or a dumb political statement is the deluge of messages from those who were offended.
The OPs of the offensive material have been contacted privately and asked to stop.
But they are only a part of the problem. This is a public mailing list with ~4500 subscribers. People here are from all walks of life, many different countries and cultures, and above all, we are individuals. All of us act and react differently.
And even more importantly, during this awful year of 2020, we're dealing with a worldwide pandemic that has affected all of our lives in many different ways, and even more sociopolitical animosity than usual. As a result, those who are easily offended are even more so, and those who blow off steam with "bad" language are even doing so even more.
This is a recipe for disaster, and results in the sort of day that we've had on the list today. We are all having problems, all of our lives have been turned upside down. Many of us have lost friends and family, our businesses are all in the crapper, and life generally sucks. But this mailing list is not the best place to express it, despite the fact that we have many people here who are (or could be) the kind of close friends that many of us need right now.
When someone says something crappy on a mailing list, remember this: You cannot know what that person is going through personally. This year, it's probably something bad. Give people some extra slack.
We here are people joined by common interests and common goals; off-topic chatter can and will happen. It must be kept under control. That's not what I'm talking about here.
To those who talk like sailors: Please keep the profanity off of the list, ditto for anything even remotely political.
To those tender of ear: Please be tolerant and exercise the "delete" function when the former group slips.
-Dave
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Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
Dave McGuire
Anders