The Personal Attacks issue

I believe that one should always go for the subject of the discussion not the person. That being said, I also believe - as several have stated above - that one must take the total number of factors into consideration when considering whether a certain post was meant as an attack, as a defense, as a joke or simply the result of the author getting worked up emotionally.

I have in the past - and I am confident I will in the future - been involved in rather heated discussion on a variety of matters. For me it is a great gift this board gives that people from an entirely different background than mine will respond to a thread and thus a set of entirely different viewpoints will emerge. This sometimes leads to some hard words being posted on both sides. I have almost always been succesful at making friends with people who I first encountered in a "heated" thread. However, sure I have used hard words - I would not at all go as far as to call it personal attacks. For the most part I don't edit my posts after a heated discussion is over (I guess I think I ought to be accountable for what I have written, so I don't change it, unless asked to, then I will do an edit, and I have done so on some occassions, including one instance where I described your beloved president with a number of words - all of which he probably did not deserve). Anyway, most of what I have written in heated discussions is still published in the involved threads so feel free to do a search and dig up some "dirt" on me I do not think I have made any personal attacks but I do tend to get emotional in some discussions, might actually be an asset, still uncertain.

Well, I guess that is all I have to say on this - I do praise my honesty here.


[This message has been edited by Goldlust (edited 09-20-2001).]