Herb, not sure I understand. Since you start out with a response it appears you have started a brand new topic to respond to a post somewhere else? That's fine but it confuses me - but then again I am easily confused anymore.

Confusion seems to be apropos here, Eddie. The possibilities here seem myriad. We could be writing about gardening, which would seem to cover most of the content of GardenWeb in general. Or we could be gardening writing. Perhaps this is a twist on the popular "lasagne gardening" method. You know, the one where you lay down layers and layers of newspapers, water it well and then cover the newspaper with mulch or compost. I always thought the purpose of this was to smother weeds, but perhaps you can smother bad garden writing and grow a well-written garden article through a judicious combination of newspapers and cattle manure?

Or we could be talking about garden writing. This is something that some of us do for pay, some of us want to do for pay and almost all of us read on a regular basis. The forum guidelines don't seem to limit participation to only the first group of individuals.

Being a critical reader is not necessarily a bad thing, but one must remember that even the harshest critics occassionally find a performance worthy of praise. Perhaps INK is suggesting that Herb has been too often on the negative side of things?

V.

Eddie - It's entirely my mistake. I didn't mean to start a new thread. I did something that caused the Garden Web to tell me that I hadn't supplied a heading - so I supplied one - and then instead of showing up as a reply to Inky, it began a new thread.

Veronicastrum - Far be it from me to argue with a Goddess, but I think that Inky was coming on a wee bit stronger than that....

Herb

This reminds me of those old Perry Mason shows or is it 'Rumpole of the Bailey"?
"Are you saying that unless I have published books or articles about gardening I ought not to be discussing the topic of writing about gardening? If so, are you not defining the scope of the forum too narrowly? If somebody writes a poor book about gardening, why would you assert that a mere reader should not be allowed to be allowed to express his opinion of it?"
The aforementioned is in reference to a previously cited opinion on another thread wherein the accused, one, so called, INKognito expressed an opinion regarding the nature of pretentious writing M'lud. The gist of this opinion was that any pointed critique regarding pretension should not in itself be pretentious otherwise the point may be lost. Furthermore, anyone who writes something for public consumption is an easy target for those who aim for perfection in others whilst never exposing themselves to the same scrutiny.
Herb, I know you will want the last word and that is fine but have you ever considered doing things another way? Your view on writers is generally negative, isn't it? The people who come here are looking for positive, I know I am, can you provide some of that as encouragement? Did you ever write yourself? seriously, did you. Would you dare to put it up. Would you appreciate it if we labelled it and put it in a corner.

Inky,

You say - on what basis I have no idea - that my opinion of writers is "generally negative". You are free to think that if you want. My opinion in fact is that there are many good writers just as there are many poor ones.

You invited me me to provide an example of exemplary writing. So I did. I cited Paul Johnson. That does not seem to have satisfied you.

At any rate, you have changed your tactic. Instead, you 'dare' me to provide an example of my own writing.

Why are my writings of any relevance? Are you saying that if I cannot, or choose not, to show you an example, it will prove something? If that sort of thing does prove something, why do you not draw our attention to your published writings?

Whether either of us provides an example or not, I am quite sure of this - it will have no influence whatsoever on Private Eye's invariably hilarious Pseuds Corner - nor will it lessen the pleasure I get in drawing attention to it from time to time.

Herb

Since you ask, go to page 10 of this forums archives there you will find a thread called "The Karma (sic) Sutra of gardening" from the good old days. There are examples of several peoples writing, including my own, something that used to happen more often. What this proves Herbie is that "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours" works better than "You show me yours and I will show you what is wrong with it."

There are indeed several examples of writing there, but I see nothing under the name 'Inkognito'.

In any event, if something written in these forums is the sort of writing you want to be produced, then all you need do, surely, is compare your postings with mine.

You win Herbie, enjoy your victory.
acj 7000

Darn. Just as the pants were starting to come down. All the potential for blackmail profits out the window.

S'okay... i was outta film anyway.

Poppa