Re: ADMIN: Civility and content
I really haven't seen "ad hominem" attacks here. What I
have seen is a tendency to deliberately misrepresent
another's opinion. For example, if A says "Technical
knowledge doesn't ensure effective communication",
and B says "What I'm hearing is 'ignorance is an asset',"
then what has happened is that A's comment has been
deliberately misrepresented and then attacked in its
misrepresented form by B. This is not the same as 'ad
hominem' attacks. An 'ad hominem' attack targets the
character of the speaker--as in, for example, "only an
idiot would say something like that." I just don't see that
happening here.
I think there should be a rule requiring that when
taking an opposing view on a question, one must address
the exact words of the statement one is disagreeing with.
Paraphrasing and then attacking the paraphrase should
be made a hanging offense. By "hanging" I mean, for example,
that the offender should be suspended over a vat of the
weird sauce that McDonald's uses on their fish sandwiches
until they cry Uncle and promise to be nice.
This, I think, would be at Eric & Deb's discretion. Civility would encompass this definition, and would be "punishable".
Of course, *all* behavior would be at their discretion. We can suggest categories, but what it comes down to is that if E & D think someone has been uncivil, they would simply warn or bounce that person.
Heck, with the threat of suspension, one self-described violator has already professed to change his ways. The potential for being banned *does* work.
I suggest anyone interested in potential list rules visit this site. It's the rules for a Mercedes-Benz owner's list I subscribe to. The list has been going for 4 years with few problems. The two major differences from this list (other than the obvious subject of interest) are 1) off-topic threads are welcomed and encouraged, and 2) they implement a "family filter" rule (see the link for details):
http://business.baylor.edu/Richard_Easley//mercedes/listrules.html
Dave
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References:
RE: ADMIN: Civility and content: From: Tom Murrell
Re: ADMIN: Civility and content: From: Michael West
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