Hello friends,
I have been bashed on occasions too, but I didn't find any harm in it at all. After all, I have stepped on many toes too and have been involved in some, I think mild, bashing also. It does however strike me that some people find they're bashed but they are native English speakers responding to posts by people who's native language is not English. And as a native Dutch speaker I know it's not always easy to speak out in another language what you're thinking about or what you're intending to say. Over the past few years my knowledge of English has improved a lot partly because I was involved in discussions on this site (and you can see my counter has almost reached 1000 by now).
It is also a fact that bashing is and always has been around on the shop floor too. I have had my share of it, bot at the receiving end as well as on the sending end of it. As long as it is a mild form of bashing, nobody ever get hurt, except maybe for the ego. But slimming down MY ego has so far not hurt me, but instead helped me mature. I can only hope it does the same for the people my bashing has been aimed at.
The bottom line for me is that I find a lot of people here I consider to be my friends even though I don't know them personally (however, for some it feels as if I do). And if friends can't use some friendly bashing, who can?
Very kind regards,