What's up with some of the DPreview staff's Attitude?

Always true.  Within our own bubbles we don't realize how we sound to others.

Hmmmm, well yes and no.  I've been traveling to (lived there in '66-7) the UK for a long time, and have worked for a UK company.  I've noted a very sharp change since the 60's, and especially after the mid 80's.  The older generations have retained a bit more civility.  I could be quite wrong, but your posts have always seemed to me to be from someone from this group. On the other hand, the younger ones have gotten much more....blunt is the best word I can think of off the top of my head, if not actually intentionally cutting. My jaw has actually involuntarily dropped in some business and quasi formal occasions at the things I've heard said to complete strangers.

Maybe because in the UK today that's just what it is---sarcasm or condescension, as opposed to the meaningless (although not always!) blandishment it is in the U.S.

Absolutely--no argument there

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tex_andrews
"Photography is the product of complete alienation" Marcel Proust
"I would like to see photography make people despise painting until something else will make photography unbearable." Marcel Duchamp