I was told today that the Japanese (as members of a very polite society) find
it difficult to disagree directly  with people.  They will use
circumlocutions such as  "my opinion is a little different to yours.  Please
allow me to explain."
As we are limited to the typed word it is understandable that our poorly
expressed reservations and queries about the typed words of others may result
in unnecessary irritation which will often be aggravated by repeated bouts
between the same communicators.
This medium is in its infancy and without doubt in years to come we will be
able to use voice inflection and body language to allow us to disagree with
and question each other harmoniously (which may spoil a lot of fun).  In the
meantime it would be well if we were to make allowances and interpret
generously any views of others which may have been more felicitously
expressed.
There is so much to learn about bees and for those of us over 50 who are
probably very nearly half way through our lives it is a terrible waste of our
most precious resource to spend time in acrimonious argument rather than
friendly discussion.
It may not be quite as much fun but perhaps we could take a lesson from Japan.
Chris Slade