And yes, regarding your "disappointing interaction" - that began when you made one of two bad assumptions. Your note appears to have been prompted by your either thinking the piles of junk filling the table were all or even largely mine, if your complaint was the junk, or you had thought that I had departed for the  day when I was in fact still in the building and were bothered by my unattended laptop, tobacco, coffee cup, papers and general paraphernalia. The next day when you encountered the same table without me or my possessions, you still seem to have been operating under the impression that the piles of junk to include a car battery, multiple laptop chargers, and all sorts of other whatnot were things I had piled there. Now, perhaps this is understandable since you aren't here most days and don't know what people's routines and norms are that are here. You didn't understand that I tend to find the least loved spot - a place where I won't feel like I'm in anyone's way to sit and that those spots also tend to be the paces where crap in general gets piled. I'm careful not to disturb things that I don't know for sure are garbage and that someone doesn't need, so I just push a clear spot out to be able to place my laptop in. You then posted to the mailing list about the junk on the table and your heroic cleaning of it - but perhaps didn't notice my response re stuff being thrown out, I said that yea I agree stuff shouldn't be stored on the tables and as far as things being thrown out that was why I'm especially careful not to leave anything of mine there on Tuesdays because the hardware hacking tends to need the space and have more purges and re-arrangements - and that I certainly had no problem with anything being pitched because none of it was mine, I wasn't in the room that night and I didn't leave anything unattended in the room to wind up pitched. So yes, the whole interaction regarding the table was, as you say 'disappointing'. Had you just asked me: "Dude, wtf - is all of this junk yours?" I would have said "No, I don't even know what most of it is. It's the contents of both tables pushed over on this one 'cause those boxes came in." I assume you would have then said. "Oh." and we would have had no problem. Instead you left a note that said "STEVE: CLEAN UP THIS TABLE!" written in colored marker on the envelope sitting next to my laptop which you mistook for garbage. I pondered whether you were complaining about my tobacco, notes, laptop, etc. because I had been out of the room for an extended time and you thought I was just really stupid/brave and had left for the night without securing my laptop, or if you thought I was using all of the crap on the table (and what kind of project someone would be doing to involve all of it?), so I parodied your note and returned it: "Jake: Don't Leave Rude Notes." It was fascinating that you describe your note specifically as "polite" and my response as "rude" given that I had intentionally mirrored yours. I figured that the absence of me and my stuff the following day, a Tuesday (when I tend to clear out since things tend to get a little loud and chaotic and I need to be elsewhere if I want to think) would clear up whatever misconceptions you were operating under and was quite surprised to see your post to the group complaining about 'my' junk.  I pointed that out in the reply that you appear not to have read. You would have the "Oh" moment when you would realized that the table without me and my possessions was pretty much as full as it was with, and that was why your note was returned.  You did bring up the legitimate complaint in your message about tobacco crumbs, which again noted, I'm now rolling on a sheet of paper and asking others to do the same. I responded to your list message agreeing that stuff shouldn't be stored on the table - especially on Tuesdays - and that was why I am sure not to do so.  And so yes, I find it quite 'disappointing' and surprising that your latest message includes the words " he rejected my request to clean up the table he had been treating like his living room". At this point, I can't view this as reasonable behavior by someone operating on unchecked assumptions, but intentional harassment.