By the way, I keep seeing on the Blab About Books homepage that Lauren C. (starter of this thread) recently posted, but it never has her posts on here when I look. Why? Anybody know?

Well, "Crazygrl101," could you please pinpoint exactly what you mean by talking about other people? In my opinion, since the Administrators screen everything (the patience it must take!! Thank you, Administrators!), anything that could be regarded as "bullying" would be deleted. Anyone who otherwise thinks they're being "bullied" could just be ultra-sensitive, which is okay if that's their personality, or just overreacting or looking for a fight. And, as you so politely stated, "whether it was meant that way or not"- very true. If there's a misunderstanding, all we have to say is, "Sorry, I guess we got a little confused. What we really meant was..."

I don't think that anybody is really "gossiping" about Lauren, who seems perfectly okay. Unless you're referring to me bringing up her name, about how it keeps appearing as last poster- well, how is that mean? I don't get it. *shrugs*

If you were talking about me, because I was one of the "main participants" in the discussion, whatever you think I said rudely, please just indicate. Nothing was meant personally. I personally thought that we're doing a pretty good job, firstly, keeping this thread clean, considering the context that Twilight contains, and secondly, being polite and open to others' thoughts. That's just me.

And we weren't discussing Harry Potter as far as I know. We got sidetracked and began debating Erik versus Raoul in Phantom of the Opera and stereotypical male characters in general. In the teaching world, that's called authentic teaching, and I endorse it wholeheartedly.

No offense meant to any Twilighters out there, including you, Crazy.

(No, no, not insulting, just shortening your name. Sorry.)

Could you kindly indicate the posts - or some of the posts, at least - that you found to be "bullying"? I know that I can be somewhat, um, nasty when I get going about something I really don't like (like Twilight). Thank you.

Where were we talking about people, as you put it? I can't recall ever talking about anyone but fictional characters.

Harry Potter comes up sooner or later in almost every Twilight conversation. It's the best-known series in the same genre/reading age group as Twilight that has books that are the same length, so it's used most often to compare, despite the plots/characters/writing style etc. are very different. Also, people get sidetracked (see Raoul vs. the Phantom argument above). It happens.

I do agree with you though that we should be careful how we word things. Forums take away the tone inflections that most people (me included) take for granted. It's harder to tell a sarcastic remark from a serious one, which can lead to trouble. *nodnod*

:)

Russet Noon???