http://www.englishforums.com/search/pro.htm?q=tag%3aGerunds+tag%3aPunctuation+tag%3aEnglish+punctuationSearch results for 'tag:Gerunds tag:Punctuation tag:English punctuation' matching tags 'Gerunds', 'Punctuation', and 'English punctuation'en-USCSMOD (Build: 3273.32735)http://www.englishforums.com/English/EvolutionRacesEquallyDeveloped/12/vwndv/Post.htm#377200Sat, 09 Jun 2007 19:35:25 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:377200stannum MrPedantic wrote No one is forced to contribute to Controversial Subjects but if you do contribute other members may well disagree with what you say On the subject of burnings at the stake as far as I know everyone reading this is sitting safe and sound at their pc surrounded by dogs doing cryptic crosswords cats knitting cardigans for their grandmothers and budgies preparing PowerPoint presentations on Pushkin s Use of the Imperfective Gerund G day Mr P May I first congratulate you on your wonderful mangulation of English punctuation I dare say that you must have enjoyed that You gave us a descriptive worthy of Charles Lutwidge Dodson I think that the mistake that Alexa makes here is to assume that all contributors are here with like intent I note that you avoided saying that contributors are free to contribute as they wish as you and I are both aware that this is most certainly not the case here in this most heavily metamoderated forum It is fair and reasonable for a person to post opinions that are contrary to the herd mentality and it is fair for the herd to round on the new opinions and attempt to tear them to shreds but it is when the shepherds wade into the fray and begin to disagree with the opinion and then use their powers as shepherds to block and edit and remove disenting opinions all fairness is gone and fascism reigns supreme You make noises at Alexa as though the virtual burnings at the stake are a mere trifle yet you could not be more wrong on the wrongest day of the year if you had an electric wronging machine set on maximum wrong Just weeks ago two young people in my general neighbourhood suicided after heavy harassment no small part of which was virtual You sit surrounded by very talented animals sipping cafe latte pushing gerunds up imperfections but some of us are trying to put our lives back together and more than one contributor to this forum is doing so in a tragic attempt to reconnect with humanity in a safe and manageable manner surrounded by all sorts of apparitions doing way more than knitting or counting their fingers to see if they chewed one off or if that was the next apparition bighting me Many contributors are obviously content and in positions of power and authority and simply use the Controversial Subjects to vent and also to display their prodidgeous language skills but others of us are trying to understand the world around us and the venal brickbats that are hurled with gay abandon must be polite to do so Gee you are very brave to wear that dress I wouldn t dare do hit a bloke smack bang square in the face at times and he wonders why the world can be so cruel but then he remembers that the world is just that cruel so how could I expect this virtual place to be any less venal and reactive than the real world that surrounds us every day of our lives that are real both in the flesh and blood sense and also the virtual one The difference I expected here is that I know that the average intelligence level in Englishforums is much higher than in the flesh and blood world I have much higher expectations in relation to the behaviour of the highly intelligent Stannum