@noffle well, it had the intended effect, and the people it was targeted at corrected their behavior promptly, every thing is cool. and they don't appear to be bothered unduly by the experience.

Instead I'm discussing this with you. There is actually an ironic symmetry here, because you are asking me to change my behaviour... except the difference is that your are not making it clear what you want me to change it to. Can you show me how you would have handled it?

Prehaps @alanz and @josiah can tell us how they took it.