>When you start mentioning being published in Comicology and having once
>worked for DC Comics, I wonder if you could be also considered a comics
>professional, or if you see yourself as such. If you do see yourself as a
>comics professional, I wonder why it is okay for you to personally attack
>JMS, but you do not concede that he is can do likewise.
>
>I am also unsure why he is not allowed to make a personal critique of your
>site when you are allowed to make a personal critique of his writing.

Because that's the way the game is played.

Here's the thrust of it, and the same thing happens every time. If you want,
you can clip this to your monitor and check it against all internet/usenet
flame wars.

Person A makes a negative assertion, and some of his/her pals jump in and enjoy
the slagging.

Person B comes in and protests.

Persons A, C and onlooker D yell and scream that they have a right to say
anything they want.

Person B makes the same claim. Persons E, F and G join in supporting this.

Persons A, C and D, feeling attacked, accuse B of having a thin skin, and E, F,
and G as being sycophants.

Person B makes the point that A, C and D are reacting to B's criticism in a way
that can be considered even more thin-skinned...that if you criticize the
criticizers, they go insane with rage and begin using invective and personal
slagging and profanity.

Now that the conversation has become about the conversation, it can never end.
And this is where the thing degenerates to a point where there's no longer a
point in carrying it on, because it becomes about who-shot-John and discussions
*about* the discussion, rather than the subject that started it.

For the record, and as a reminder, this began at two points:

1) After responding politely and frequently, without once resorting to insults
of the kind that I've received, I posted a somewhat frustrated but nonetheless
humorous note that tweaked the person who I (and the majority of other posters)
felt simply didn't understand the subejct he was criticizing.

2) I asked who the person was who had a site called Comics Worth Reading on the
theory that, well, one should *know*, shouldn't one?

Aside from that one humorous tweaking message, I have not fallen back on the
kind of cursing and invective that has been hurled at me personally. I've been
called every foul name in the book, hammered for being "thin-skinned" when it's
those who can't take the heat when you address their own statements who are the
ones doing the flaming...using mean, vicious, foul-mouthed attacks on me
personally, not the discussion, which I've tried to keep on target, but at me
personally.

And now the discussion has become *about* the discussion...and at this point,
there's simply no point in continuing it. I'm not going away, just stopping my
part of this discussion because there's just no point in it...so anybody wants
to slag away, feel free.

But absent one humorous message, I defy ANYONE on this board to find one
message that I've posted in this thread that has come within a tenth of the
viciousness and mean-spiritedness that has come back in my direction for daring
to challenge the opinions of a few...and then tell me who has the thin skin
here. Make no mistake: it was not me who turned this thread toxic. Not by any
stretch of the imagination. Not playing the victim here, just stating the
verifiable facts.

Which was where this started in the first place, and constitues an equally
valid place to end it.


jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2004 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)