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<snip> I'm convinced that the root of so much ire on so many lists is the misinterpretation of e-messages. [Jesse Glass] <snip> Agreed. But I think there's something else - an archness, a use of modal operators to adjust the apparent value of what is said - from which the List rarely benefits. That is H (you're a shit) [an authorial heteronym says you're a shit] J (you're a shit) [you're a shit, but I'm only joking] T (you're a shit) [you're a shit in this text I've just made up] etc all tend to mean 'you're a shit'. It's not that email lacks tone, as such; it's that tonal ambivalence is too often used to avoid taking moral responsibility for what is meant. My first and last words on this topic. CW