You're right, I didn't give sufficient consideration to the benefits you might get from IRC, and I'm sorry about that...I should have appreciated that you feel a little blindsided and the piling on doesn't help.

It's OK. There's no reason you should've known I was hard of hearing or appreciate how much I get out of IRC, before I bared my heart.

Perhaps you could ask a trusted friend who's also a regular on the channel to give you a heads up by PM if what you say gets a little too offensive?

That's a good suggestion, but I can't think of any. startling and Algo are the only 2 to express offense in the quoted conversations but I neither trust nor distrust them as guides.