PR,
In the poll thread, that I think ID is referring to and where you nominated him (along with many others) for the CRT "Broken Record" Award, you did start out with the following remark:
Phoenix Rising wrote:
Is it IRISH DRIFTER? While a wealth of good info is graciously offered, he never misses a chance to CORRECT your post for grammatical, spelling or emoticonial errors and would even question the color of your pizza cheese?
To be honest I've also made that incorrect assertion before. ID does love to correct everyone, sometimes on the most picayune of items, but grammar is not really one of his pet peeves. OTOH, I'm not sure what effect he thinks you desired to produce in "your feeble little poll", since you also added that your vote went to Spanky, not him. Spanky did come out slightly behind ID but Florida got many more votes than either of them. ID seems to be suggesting here that the main purpose of that thread was somehow to personal embarass or attack him (even though the poll was appropriately placed in the "smack talk, funstuff" section, included 6 other members and was plainly just done in fun).
As you're probably already aware, I've personally seen this paranoid sensitivity only just recently, which I suspect you may actually have been thinking of when you made the comment he quoted
Phoenix Rising wrote:
Irish Drifter and others may (be? [sic]) unsure about the "spirit"and "tone" of your post
In addition to the quote you cited, ID has said at various times:
Irish Drifter wrote:
If that was meant to be sarcastic or humorous you should have included an emoticon.
Irish Drifter wrote:
....All of this posted without a single emoticon to signify a remark made in jest makes it difficult to buy into your statement that you are just teasing....To me a single post with the appropriate emoticon indicates a little "leg pulling". Multiple post in the same thread with the same theme gets a little closer to being a vendetta.
Irish Drifter wrote:
...If you simply forgot using an emoticon then the comment was simply in poor taste. If you did not forget to put one in then the post is outrageous. ...
Irish Drifter wrote:
...Think of emoticons as inflections in your voice or as a smile or frown on your face. They are there to show the intent of your words since the written word can not.
Really do not care if you ever use an emoticon just do not complain when your words are taken literally

...
Irish Drifter wrote:
...Just a sugestion. Rather than an exclamation mark
! which is easy to miss use an emoticon like

. Written word can not convey sarcasm, cynicism, razzing, etc. so it is easy to misinterpret. If you want to use an exclamation mark better to use

...
BTW, the names other members that he referred to in these quotes were edited out to protect the guilty, but they were all different people and none of them were me (that came later). As it happens, I actually agree with him 110% on all of these remarks, only that I'd add that there is also such a thing as an overuse of emoticons (
FLORIDA

). I also agree 110% with ID that "information exchanged here is more important than the grammatical correctness of the post." However, on that I might also add a qualification that a few typos or grammatical lapses here and there are understandable when guys are quickly trying to get their ideas down and whipping off posts, but some posters do reflect a complete lack of 4th grade english when such lapses seem to occur every other word. But in any event, these quotes make it abundantly clear that your comment about ID and emoticons in this thread was entirely appropriate and well directed (and I guess since I agree with him that I must be one of the "and others").
Anyhow getting back to oversensitivity, I got into a row with ID when
I did use an emoticon to indicate I was just ribbing him and he took it seriously anyway even after I tried to explain to him that I didn't mean anything personal by it (and was sorry that he TOOK it the way he did).
Irish Drifter wrote:
...And the inclusion of

hardly masks your true intention...
Irish Drifter wrote:
...You can put 100 emoticons in an attack post and they do not change the intent of the message. ...
My message to our esteemed brother ID (which is offered with great sincerity and respect) is the following. We all GREATLY appreciate the HUGE wealth of information you bring to this forum, even if some aspects of your posting style or personality might sometimes irritate or annoy us. Get over it. DON'T take it too personally. Nobody is ever completely perfect or universally admired. Heck, just look at me! I know that many guys don't particularly care for the way I write (to put it mildly). OTOH, I also know that a LOT of guys do appreciate what I have to say, if not the way I say it. Just continue to be yourself, as that is all that you can be, and let the chips fall where they may.