I wonder if we could hit on the source of humor again for a moment? It was mentioned wrt. Ol' Fashioned Girl's PMS comment.
There are many many gender/race/disability jokes that are socially acceptable if made by the in-group and not by the out-group. Yeh? Because from the out-group it implies "And I'm Better", but from the in-group it does not. ETA: from the in-group it's a form of commiseration.
This is a simple fact of language -- it does depend on who's speaking. In a community this large though, we don't always know who's speaking and what their background is.
So perhaps it's useful for us all to keep in mind that a) the person making epileptic jokes might be epileptic or have a loved one who is, and it might be a tension release thing. and b) you could hurt people with your humor, and it does not make them unreasonable, it makes them people who have different context from you.
and c) when someone has ninety thousand posts here, like Haskins does (ETA: And joined in Feb 1905) it's only fair to assume they have a lot of shared context with some other people on the board. And when someone has 15 posts, and has joined in Oct 2007, maybe it's okay to tread a little gently around them even if you normally wouldn't.
Which is to say, I often look at post count and join date to try and get basic context. Maybe it's a useful thing to do?
There are many many gender/race/disability jokes that are socially acceptable if made by the in-group and not by the out-group. Yeh? Because from the out-group it implies "And I'm Better", but from the in-group it does not. ETA: from the in-group it's a form of commiseration.
This is a simple fact of language -- it does depend on who's speaking. In a community this large though, we don't always know who's speaking and what their background is.
So perhaps it's useful for us all to keep in mind that a) the person making epileptic jokes might be epileptic or have a loved one who is, and it might be a tension release thing. and b) you could hurt people with your humor, and it does not make them unreasonable, it makes them people who have different context from you.
and c) when someone has ninety thousand posts here, like Haskins does (ETA: And joined in Feb 1905) it's only fair to assume they have a lot of shared context with some other people on the board. And when someone has 15 posts, and has joined in Oct 2007, maybe it's okay to tread a little gently around them even if you normally wouldn't.
Which is to say, I often look at post count and join date to try and get basic context. Maybe it's a useful thing to do?