Hi Felix,

I understand what you mean about the FAQ, but I’ve found it a very
helpful foundation on which to build my personal experience of
sourdough. Yes it is often contradictory and confusing but then so is
any subject when one first looks at it in text. Imagine if instead of
maps all you had to describe the world was text. One part of that text
might say ‘New York, in the West, can be reached from London, UK by
flying North up the UK across the Atlantic and down past the coast of
Canada and past Newfoundland.’ Then later on it says, I eventually
arrived in New York after flying South East from London to Singapore
before continuing on to Hong Kong, San Francisco and finally arriving
in JFK, New York. Might that not sound a little confusing at first to
someone with no prior knowledge of Geography?

Yes I realise the FAQ is at times more convoluted and confusing than
that.

Your questions have been treated with respect because they were, no
doubt, written with humility and respect. Bullying first requires an
imbalance of power, the week and the strong, then the desire on behalf
of the strong to abuse that power to inappropriately control or abuse
the week.

Is it inappropriate control to give advice to another person in a news
group? Is it inappropriate control to suggest to another member of the
news group to take it easy, relax and don’t take what’s said so
personally?

Of course if a person feels he is being controlled against his will he
will feel he has been bullied. But can a person be bullied where there
is no power? Well yes someone could give power to another but if that
‘power’ is given freely can you then accuse the ‘empowered’ of
bullying? Wouldn’t that be like accusing a dominatrix of bullying her
client?

You saw no bullying Felix because you were happy and content to accept
the replies you asked for.

To be perfectly frank I think to band around the term 'bully' in a
news group for adults is an abominable insult to those that experience
real mental and physical abuse at the hands of those with real power
to control and dominate their victims.

No one has any real powers here therefore there can be no bullying
except as some masochistic fantasy on behalf of those claiming to have
suffered.

Jim


On 21 Apr, 22:17, Felix Karpfen wrote:
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 19:08:41 -0400, Mike Romain wrote:
...
It looks as though I have been very lucky in my selections. Most of the
material - making allowance for some colourful language - has been very
helpful. And the queries that I posted have - so far- escaped the wrath of
the bullies.

But drawing repeated attention to an FAQ that fails to recognise the
experiences of the past ten years seemed an odd way to encourage new
arrivals to sourdough baking.

Felix Karpfen