Jody and I have received lots of letters in the last three days,
including letters from each of the individuals who have been
passionately involved in these basically technical discussions.
All the letters express concern and encouragement for MMD, and we
surely appreciate the sincerity and candor.

Because MMD is a forum (and also because our editorial time is quite
limited), we publish each submission essentially as it is received.
It isn't possible to determine the intent of every comment in an
article, and how it may be perceived by each reader; so it remains in
the letter, along with the personal opinions and friendly small-talk.

Thus the character of MMD _is_ the character of its authors.  Under
ordinary circumstances you could telephone a Craig Brougher or a Nancy
Fratti or a John Tuttle, and you'd be speaking with the person who is
just as you imagined: genuinely friendly, interested and helpful.

We offer our regrets rather than an apology to our readers who've been
upset by the personal friction in the recent articles; this happens in
an open forum.  We urge you authors to "proof read" your articles to
MMD, so that personal remarks don't occur, either accidentally or
purposefully.  A twisted joke, or a thoughtless jab with an unneces-
sary fact, is neither informative nor constructive nor welcome.

If anyone feels so strongly about a subject that they're concerned it
might be considered a personal attack, please write a "flag" at the top
of your letter, saying something like " ** Help me re-write this! **"

We'll help you edit the article, and smooth the rough edges, so that
it tells your message without provoking enemy fire !

Robbie Rhodes, MMD  (with much help from Karl Petersen  ;)