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Yes, I've been reading all the posts and cringing as things seem to heat up. The purpose of the forum is to encourage others to reach their highest potential, no matter from what point they are starting.
In order to accomplish this, it is necessary for members to feel safe to express themselves without being attacked. I don't remember who the first member was that posted for a critique, but I commend their courage at being the first!
I agree that we should express outselves in a manner that is considerate of the believes and practices of another and if there is a disagreement to express it in a courteous way. This is especially necessary on this forum because of the wide variety of career levels. If this was a forum where everyone had a well-developed career and confidence in their painting, this might not be such a significant issue.
I also cringe at the thought of the impression we may be giving the extremely polite members from other countries that are on this forum. Are we being the Ugly American?
I agree that passionately-held beliefs are often the cause of saying something that is condescending to another. Sometimes this is intentional and soemtimes not. As we can easily see in the world today, this happens all the time in the area of religion.
There is more than one way to skin a cat and often no right or wrong. When I first started designing web pages, a potential client criticized the fact that I had put the images against a pure black background. He said I should never use pure black. My feelings were extremely hurt at the way he expressed it (he was a former minister!) and I turned him down for Stroke of Genius (he wasn't that good anyway). Also, when I looked at his web pages, I knew they weren't good pages, so he was no authority on design. But, for years, I never used pure black again. Then, in the last year, I had 3 artists complain because I wasn't using a pure black background. Who is right or wrong?
What I see is that both you and Steve are incredibly talented and recognized in the field and would love to see both of you continue as contributing members as I know you both have a lot of value to offer to other artists.
By the way, when a post is offensive, there is a line below the icons in a post that says "report his post to a moderator". In this case, I'm the moderator. I will add something in the registration agreement regarding coutesy. If a reminder is necessary, I can certainly do that.
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