Trying to talk to people without referring to people directly makes things unnecessarily difficult. Avoiding making individuals the focus of a threadis both more obnoxious, and easier to avoid without causing problems.
Is it really significantly more obnoxious? At least it means you have to concentrate on the topic and "play the ball, not the man", which some have trouble with. Beyond that, it doesn't seem a particularly difficult task.
(And anyway, the "you" from my mail quoted above is an impersonal you, synonymous with "one", so isn't on point for your complaint.)
They're indistinguishable and that's part of the problem when you reply using it. It's very easy (natural?) to read them as accusations about the quoted author.
Hah, me trying to explain how not to be offensive in email, without the aid of (much) medication. When do the horsemen arrive?
-- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. Please http://remember.to/edit_messages on lists to be sure I read http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ slef@jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/