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RE: Debate / Discussion (FYI)
December 29, 2011 at 12:42 pm
rev,
You'll note that I posted this in "Philosophy" and not in "Announcements". This isn't some new kind of enforcement of the rules; this is merely a diagram which shows what everyone should be aiming for when trying to have a decent discussion / debate. You are free to call people names if you want to, as long as the name-calling doesn't escalate into a flame war where all you are doing is name-calling. What we'd prefer is if you were to make an actual point along with the name-calling, and what we'd really prefer is if you kept the name-calling out of it altogether.
I'm not denying that people are emotional; we all let the "heat of battle" get to us, myself included. This is why I said we should be "aiming" for the top three. We may occasionally let slip the odd bottom one, but if we at least try to keep discussions to the top three, we'll have better discussions because of it.