Hey,
Ętheling, I'm only going to speak for myself, but there is much more soul-searching thoughtfulness in that gracious apology that I could have anticipated. I appreciate the effort.
I don't generally hold grudges on the internet (I reserve that for IRL - someday I'll talk about my SO's oldest daughter, the wicked witch to the east. I haven't wished for a house to fall on her ... yet.) The internet is anonymous and somewhat ephemeral (let's ignore archive.org for the moment.) And heated discussions, especially in this place, abound. There were comments about people's intelligence on both sides of the discussion that might deserve redress.
The thing I do is start each post in a different thread with a fresh mindset. So while I might have had an emotional reaction and posted a countering comment to
AD here, in another thread a little later I was posting helpful links on where she might be able to buy a skull mug. In other words, I treated this thread as a self-contained argument and did not let what happened here color my judgment of people's character or behavior in other threads.
To reuse an analogy that came up earlier, I know people who like Twilight. Overall, they're decent people and I take them as a whole, instead of identifying them by one or two characteristics that I might not care for. I believe you've done the same in your assessment of
GM.
Again, I can't speak for others, but I like what you wrote in that last post, and consider the incident "water under the bridge."
*edit* - Oh, and the "consistently level-headed nice guy" crown around here goes to
Humane Pain, a good young fellow who teaches me a thing or two from time to time.
