Re: The Stupid, LONG, piano story [no harp]

[Bobbie Giordano <bobg@xxxxxxxxx>]

My apologies for going against list policy here, and anything further on
this I will only discuss offlist, where it belongs.  However, my words
onlist were callously misrepresented.   
 
Robb Bingham wrote:
>
>I didn't read the stupid piano story. After a couple
>years online you can recognize bored housewife/cubicle
>workers trying to find meaning in their vapid lives by
>sending apocryphal [at best]attachments to 5000 of
>their closest friends.

Interesting to publicly speculate on peoples' motives when you haven't read
what they're talking about.  If you had, you might have recognized that
your characterization is closely along the same lines of what I was telling
the list and why the whole issue should be ignored. 

>But it's interesting to see the comfort many of you are 
>taking in attributing it to ~religion~; with all the 
>typical bashing I've come to expect. Bobbie blames 
>~Christian Groups~ and Sam ties it in to the Oklahoma 
>bombings. 

Excuse me??  Last point first, Sam mentioned the Oklahoma bombing because
it was prominently utilized in the contrived story for heightened emotional
effect.  Of course, not having read the story, you wouldn't know that.

And as for accusing me of blaming ~Christian Groups~... had you read, with
comprehension, what I wrote, you'd see that I quoted a website that is
devoted to debunking "urban legends and myths" on the Net, and purposely
provided the URL for those who wished to read the article on this story,
rather than copy it entirely into Harp-L's messages.

>This is typical. And should I rebut- - - I'm the
>boogieman fanatic. 

:) Gimme a break!  What's typical is this comment.  Blame everyone else
then play the martyr.

The truth is I DON'T blame Christian groups for the intrusion of this or
any hoax anymore than the person I quoted, and I resent the rude and
careless insinuation that I do.  But, as I discovered for myself, this
story is indeed getting a large amount of its Net circulation on
religious-based websites, which is their right; unfortunately, all which I
found were also presenting it as a "great TRUE story", as happened here,
which it is not!  I feel sorry they've been duped into believing it.

If anything, the story's author is the culprit, and those who spread it are
unwitting pawns, [often innocent with only good intentions,] in one more
scheme to cause disruption across the internet.  Then again, hey! maybe it
was just some high school freshman's creative writing project for English
class that got legs somehow.  I don't know, you certainly don't, Robb; nor
do I care.

What I do care about is civility and respect toward others on this list, me
included.  And that includes helping listmembers recognize and avoid
potentially Harp-L damaging behavior, as in sending bogus stories or
messages in HTML.  Hopefully members will then let small mistakes pass like
adults and move on.  Openly denigrating others, OTOH, has utterly no place
on Harp-L, resulting only in harsh words and discord.  We need to respect
each other through both deeds and restraint. 

>Show a little faith.

I'd appreciate a little more of that from you myself.

Apologies again, List.  I will not dignify this matter any further with my
onlist comments, and I do hope I'll have lots of company.

Thanks,
Bobbie

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