"Phrogz" <gavin / refinery.com> wrote in message 
news:1156189774.152645.230420 / i3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> Just Another Victim of the Ambient Morality wrote:
>> I've been watching this thread intently and I don't recall anyone being
>> abusive or even close to it.  Could you site an example?
>
> Personally, I perceived the beginning of Philip's original terse
> response as containing a little bit of the holier-than-thou attitude
> the OP was referring to:
>
>>> I was surprised to find the following...
>> Really? Take a comsci course at uni
>
> That could be interpretted as:
> "Are you so much of a dumbass that you don't even know what a hash is?
> Try going to school, moron."
> or far more kindly as:
> "Interesting. What you find confusing actually makes perfect sense to
> me. That's how I was taught hashes behave, anyhow."
>
> Blame the impersonal nature of the written word.
>
> (My intent here is not to attack Philip, but instead to provide an
> example of how the original poster might have felt that some responses
> had a bit of 'attitude' to them.)

    These are good examples and your point is well taken...

    Personally, I would hope that people won't take the pessimistic 
interpretation of everything they read.  For instance, I took that sentence 
to mean "this is so common that it's standard teaching at anywhere that 
would teach the subject," and I read absolutely no value judgements into it 
but, then again, perhaps there was malice in that sentence and I just chose 
not to see it.  I'm unsure whether this is a bad thing or not...