: So Me_43 doesn't think I'm just ragging on him, but sees that I understand
: how he might perceive your message as somewhat arrogant, even if I don't.
I was writing from work earlier so I had to be brief, let me elaborate here.
What I was saying in my first message was, in effect, "Goran, you rock, but saying that you rock makes you sound arrogant. However, I know from personal experience that many times people have an honest good opinion of their skills or attributes which is perfectly true - they think they're good, not because they're arrogant, but because they really ARE good, and they're willing to admit the other areas where they are NOT good just as readily - and I think you fall into that category. You have a right to say that you are good at mapmaking, because you really are good at mapmaking.
However, our society seems to be one that simultaneously expects perfection from everyone and never expects them to own up to their good qualities when they have achieved them, so with that background, anyone saying anything good about themselves, justified or not, *sounds* arrogant. I was observing that Me_43 reacted to you as though he interpreted your statements as arrogant, as his statements seem to be saying "you're not really all that good, look how much further you could go"; and since I'm trying to mediate between you two, which is my job since I'm teh l33t adm1nz here now, I was trying to make it clear that while I have no problem with what you said, I can understand why Me_43 might see it in a way that he would take issue with it. I'm looking at this from both sides. You kinda have to do that to mediate things.
And all that said, while he was himself somewhat arrogant-sounding the way he said it, Me_43 has a point. You may be awesome, maybe you're even more awesomer than everyone else still mapping, but there is always room to improve. Someone who becomes the best and then says "OK I'm the best, I've done it all, there's nothing better that anyone can do now," and stops improving - won't stay the best for long. Which may not be what you're doing or saying, but it's easy to interpret what you wrote in that way.
