[Theforum] list slaps

Madhu Menon webguru at vsnl.net
Fri Mar 1 10:45:09 CST 2002


At 09:56 PM 3/1/2002, Daniel J. Cody wrote:
>"..this is the very reason that I often refrain from asking some questions
>and why I may not answer some questions.  Even if I have an answer for
>someone, the next post may just rip my solution to shreads.

Well, duh! (to use an American expression)

thelist *is* for discussion, right? If I see someone saying something
obviously wrong, I'll point it out. Or am I supposed to keep quiet?

There's nothing wrong with debate and disagreement. It's only the manner in
which I disagree that makes a difference. I remember a long time back (a
really long time back) when Jeff (and you too, Dan, IIRC) had ripped apart
a product comparison on the Tango site. Jeff especially did a point by
point decimation of their argument (actually he did it on the MJ list). He
did it all without getting personal about it. If the same thing were to
happen on thelist, I see no problem with it.

It's only when you attack people and not opinions that we have flame wars.
If you believe that your argument has merit, use only that. Resorting to
calling people names just shows that your argument is probably weak, and
hence you have to make ad hominem attacks.

Why is this girl so afraid that someone will "rip [her] solution to shreads
(sic)"? Is she not confident of her solution's accuracy? I sometimes am
not, but in those cases, I usually say something like "I'm not completely
sure about this, but..."

If someone rips someone's mail to shreds without making personal attacks,
there are only two possibilities. Either that person is right, or not. If
he or she is right, great. If not, the original poster or another member is
free to point it out.

Where's the problem?

Madhu



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Madhu Menon
User Experience Consultant
e-mail: webguru at vsnl.net




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