When Luke entered the bar in Mos Eisley he went in with nothing but peaceful intentions. He quietly found an open spot at the bar and placed his order the next thing he knew Some Aqualish was in his face about something as was some horrible scarred human threatening to kill him. A myriad of question must have entered his mind. Who are these guys? Why are they threatening me? What did I do to deserve this? In the Movie we know that offense was unavoidable and that Ponda Baba and Dr. Evazan were nothing but violent thugs looking for any reason to start a fight.

But was there some way Luke could have avoided that confrontation? Could it have been the way he approached the side of a violent Aqualish? Was it some cultural faux pas that Luke may have committed? We may never know. But in real life we should be able to learn how to avoid offending people we do not intend to offend. What got this subject on my mind was a little incident that happened recently. I logged on to SW.com and was browsing throw the blogs I saw one that looked like an interesting read and I read it. The blog left a lot more questions then answers so I checked the replies to see if that made things more clear. I saw one reply and much to my surprise I saw little red letters saying I was blacklisted.

The chances of this being a mistake are good I have only ever replied only once ever to this blogger and the reply stuck to the nature of the person's blog and at the end I gave a compliment to the person. But one never knows which has been the problem that has bugged me for some time. I like many of you I believe do not come on this site with the intention of offending people, be rude, or making enemies. The notion that I may have accidentally caused offense to someone has caused me some concern and hours of reflection to no avail. If there is a problem I cannot rectify it or prevent it from happening again because I simple do not know what I did or if something even happened.

It is this not knowing that is the worst. Not knowing means I could do something like this again. Could it have been my wording? Was something misunderstood? Did I not observe some blogging etiquette that is unknown to me? Was there a cultural difference that caused the miscommunication? All of these things I would like to know to prevent this from happening again at least with another blogger. Could it have been an opinion I wrote in one of my blogs? If one can't stand me writing my opinion in my blog then to hell with that person.

This isn't a call to change the blacklisting policy. Actually I find it to be quite reasonable. To open some back channel to have blacklisted to redress problems with blacklisters then the whole point of a blacklisting becomes moot. Nor is this a plea to the person who blacklisted me. I have kept the nature of the blogger vague and if he/she has purposely denied me from his/her blog then why would that person read my blog? This about the burden of friendly well-meaning people not knowing why they get the cold shoulder when they enter a room of other friendly people.

This may also be a call to have better communication. To not take offense so quickly. Try to read things in the best possible light I find that that is the tone of people. If a reply you receive seems offensive but is vague ask for clarification. Give a person another chance after one reply unless it is really obnoxious. Check your blacklist to make sure all on there should be on there. This just doesn't apply to blogs but to the people you meet as well.

I have found no replies to any of my blogs to be offensive to me. And if I have offended anyone with my replies I am sorry for offending you it was not my intention in any way. And I am happy to say my blacklist is empty.

Thank you, replies welcomed.