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>And for the record, my vote is no. I don't care if someone gets abusive in Chatter. Folks can choose to read messages here or not. What I hate to see is bullying in technical threads. It fractures the community and heavens knows we don't need any more of that.
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>Doug

You know I have a great deal of respect for you and your opinions and I know that like me and some of the other people on this thread you've known John a long time and have a had a lot of opportunities to interact with him professionally and socially in real life. We know him to be a ... complex personality. <s> But I've also seen him as a very insightful and helpful presenter, teacher and mentor ... when he chooses to be. And I've often wanted to smack him.

I know John got involved in some pretty ugly confrontations over in the technical area but they always seemed to be with people like Walter, Steve Black ( ooh, that was an ugly one ), and other folks who can pretty much hold their own with anybody.

I am always amazed when technical arguments go nasty but I also know they take more than one person to go to that level ( how many of those ego-fueled hairpullers have *you* been involved in <bg>

But I don't remember JVP abusing people who were asking for help - maybe I just missed it. Actually, I always found it odd how he could be so completely take-no-prisoners in the big ego-clashes but so helpful with people who just needed the answer to a question. Kind of like a seeing-eye rabid pitbull <s>

If he does come back I think it would be best for everyone if he stuck to the .net and sql server forums.

Where are Jeff Winchell and Fabian Pascal, now that we really need them? <g>