The idea that those of us who are not as experienced, educated or knowledgeable as professionals are not your equals is offensive in the extreme. I feel quite certain that there are plenty of us with expertise in areas where you are neophytes or completely uneducated. And so what if someone who is a non-native speaker of English who thinks that he or she is correct about a point of grammar. Does it really impact you so deeply that you feel the need to condescend as you do? Many of the people in that group are there to learn and are not interested in becoming freelance professionals, editors, proofreaders or professional writers. I am a professional musician, among other things. I could probably play rings around you, and yet I would never be condescending or rude to another who is not a professional. Nor would I regard someone as being beneath me (as in not my equal) because he or she was an amateur, or made some uninformed comments about Baroque music.

But the pièce de résistance in the above submittal is the comment: “And — perhaps even more importantly — why should those of us who are in publishing care what someone like that thinks or says?” And how many of you on this forum agree with Ruth. How sad. Out come the claws! Why should I, up on my pedestal, pay attention to the little people?

You greatly overestimate your importance in the scheme of things. All of you who feel that way…. (yes, it’s a fragment.) There is enough real cruelty and barbarism in the world to obviate the need for such petty grievances. If this is what represents professionalism in the world of editing, writing and proofreading, then it is a world without kindness, and I am glad that I am someone who is just seeking a better understanding and grasp of grammar.

I specially like the bit where “So many of the people in these groups aren’t at a level of expertise, experience, skill, or professionalism for me to consider them as equals,”

How clever of you to instinctively recognise an equal!

Regarding the LinkedIn list, a list without a moderator is like a magazine without an editor— you just print the first 15 articles that come in. A newsroom doesn’t turn over the computer terminals to anyone who walks in, and then leave them sitting there, live, beyond the first unhelpful message. Where is the editor?

I find Facebook even more of a time-waster; I look at it once every few weeks, only if I get a notification that one of the grandchildren has posted new photos.