Re: Emmy award winning editor at NBC blogs about FCPX

[Herb Sevush] "Bill, if you've been following along, Mike has admitted he doesn't really use the multi-cam feature, his exact quote about it was "I myself just have never gotten the hang of it in any sort of way", while I use it every day. You might also have read where I gave him a tip about how better to use the "stacks" method he already employs. I could do that because I've used variations of that method for years. So lets see, I've extensively used both methods, he admittedly hasn't. I don't see anything personal about that, it's just the facts. How should I have written it? "

Let's take this seriously for a moment.

When I read your post, it sounded extremely snarky and dismissive to me. So I started to respond to it.

BUT - and I think this is VERY important.

After I cut out your words to quote them, a funny thing happened. I noticed that while my "snarky" reading was perfectly in tune to your words (try going back and reading what I quoted of yours in the previous message and see if you can 'hear" it as mocking and dismissive, just for fun) - I also noticed that it was possible to step back and read the SAME words with less internal emotion and sneering in mind.

Essentially, it reminded me that when we write things here - the TONE we might actually be using is generally NOT conveyed with the text. That is something that comes from the readers perceptions of the personality of the poster.

I find it easy to attribute dismissal and condemnation to you, because we argue. So the lightbulb for me was to understand that there might actually be different intent behind the words that you, or Chris's or Aindreas might actually THINK they are putting into what they write.

And in fairness, I suspect it's worked both ways. I've often been surprised at how negatively many here have taken things I've written - when I've honestly written them with a neutral or even conciliatory tone in my head - only to find that people read them as if I was mocking their ideas.

THAT is the point here.

Absent the cues of tone and body language, I suspect we ALL have been guilty of applying personality traits to others that they simply don't have (or at least aren't using in the moment.)

You guys missed the meetup in Las Vegas, but the four of us sat at a table for nearly three hours and nobody had an argument or a hassle. Everyone listened. Everyone was respectful. And more than that - it was fun.

So I'm just pointing out that probably half the vitriol here is actually nothing more or less than dumb mistakes on the parts of EVERYONE here, myself firmly included in misinterpreting TONE.

Simple as that.

"Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions."-Justice O'Connor