Personal observation...

[serene]

...that is, observation about me, personally.

In person, people have frequently told me that I am so personable that I can tell someone to fuck themselves and have them go away smiling. I have been told that I make people feel liked and can disagree with them without being disagreeable. Some people disagree, of course, including one of my partners, but I've gotten it enough that I trust that it's at least a common perception, if not the majority one.

Online[1], however, the general perception of me tends to be that I'm mean, needlessly blunt, cruel, and uncaring. The thing is, in my head, my posts feel to me to be in the same tone as my in-person interactions, so clearly my demeanor/humor/goodwill do not translate especially well to text.

Good to know.

[1] In Usenet and discussion-based email lists

Comments

[redandfiery.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hear you there! I can come across pretty badly in text too. My last job, for a company with several branches across the UK, involved quite a bit of email communication; my blunt, to-the-point emails ruffled a lot of feathers and in fact got me reprimanded by the boss a couple of times. Then again, it was a pretty male-dominated company, and in my experience there's a sizeable minority of men who think any female who straight-talks and doesn't behave submissively is an appalling rude harridan, so...