Not quite. @thorstenstueker posted an apology and this matter is settled.
The ‘snowflake’ insult came from @MarkusWinter.
Beyond this particular post, I’d like to know if harassment and insults are tolerated in this forum. Please advise.
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First: he spoke with me. And meant me. And knows that I can take something like that with humor. Maybe that other are not understanding that. I am. And it has nothing to do with you. NOTHING. So in my Eyes you are not harassed and I do not understand why you think you should be insulted when not meant. Again: he spoke with THORSTEN and not with Torsten.
This was a public post. Treating other people ‘snowflakes’ should better be done in private.
Here we go, I see that also so but it was not private. But it is not that big affair while he made that on my expense and I can live with it. And there is no second Thorsten on INN I am aware of.
I don’t mean to poke the bear here (really)… but I’ve just read through this thread and got confused about it myself. Seriously, THROSTEN vs TORSTEN. That’s a single character difference, which as programmers, we all know can (and usually does) completely change the meaning of things.
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Indeed.
Same with English and various localizations too. A typical northern Australian greeting, is deemed offensive in “Mother England” and probably in the US too.
if members flag it we’ll see it
the mods will often ask the person who posts such aa comment to revise it
and its by default “hidden” but you can still see it if you desire
if the person revises their post - great - it can be revealed
Some have flatly refused and their post remains hidden
Its a community effort to police ourselves
Abusing flagging is just as bad as being an ass
only for notice: in this thread everybody can see that the use of the title dude is not friendly but harassing the other. There was not even an Idea about banning for the user.
This must definitely be a cultural and/or language thing, because you could replace “dude” with the person’s name and it would read the same to me. The words around it have the negative attitude.
I can’t think of any examples where the word “dude” is used particularly negatively. It’s just a replacement word for guy, girl, person, you, etc. depending on context. Of course, I grew up in the western US so we may use it more liberally than others.
In German culture, in England, Israel I have learned that respectful addressing is definitely not with “dude” for a person I have no connections with. It is extremely unpolite to say “dude” when you don’t know that person. Normally, in case of Jeannot Muller, I would have to say Dr. Muller. In a forum like INN we use the first names. So I would say Jeannot. But NEVER EVER I would say dude. Even in USA I have learned that nobody said dude to a person which is unknown. In that case I have learned to say Mr. or - in a situation like this - at least the first name.
Dude ???
as in “are you serious?”
just as a counter point 
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Nope, that’s still not offensive at all to me. “Dude???” would mean the same as “are you serious?”
Dude is definitely a more familiar term, so I wouldn’t use it in a work setting (except for friends), or anything like that. But I still wouldn’t consider it offensive there, just weird. As for a forum setting, maybe reading everybody’s name and posts all the time makes people feel more familiar than they actually are.
Anyway, knowing that it’s thought of differently in other countries isn’t surprising, but I hadn’t thought about it before. It’s good to know, thanks!
Its definitely context sensitive as to whether its rude or not
And relies on how it affects the person its directed at
Their perception of it being used rudely is really the only one that matters since they’re the one thats offended by the usage
Perhaps we could discuss “Howdy”. I only heard it used by employees when greeting informally. Once I was in the US someone from Texas used it in business context to greet someone from Boston and that guy completely freaked out and obviously felt offended. As a foreigner I didn’t understand, for me it sounds “funny, strange …”, but that’s all. I only memorized to better never use it myself 
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I have a hard time imagining how Howdy would be offensive but …
Its certainly got regional colloquialism overtones to it but freaking out about Howdy would be like getting mad at some one for saying Aloha (which is also a greeting)
Many let me say a bit more rich people are not willing to accept this forms of greeting. For them it is so that Howdy or dude are not an appropriate form of dressing somebody with respect.
At least he didn’t call you Lebowski, a.k.a. “The Dude.” 
For those who might not know, that’s a movie reference. And let me be especially explicit… my intention was to lighten the mood, not to insult. Please laugh it off to cultural differences and let’s move on to more productive discussions, like how to fix (or replace) Xojo.