[extropy-chat] Politics: worthwhile commentary

[BillK]

On 1/1/06, spike wrote:
>
> Al, if someone insults you offlist, that is fair game, but it isn't fair
> game for you to post their private messages to the whole world.  Do desist,
>

Hmmm.  Really???

Netiquette agrees that posting private messages to the list is wrong
and an apology should be sent to the list and to the author.

But making a distinction between private flames and on-list flames is
worth a few moments thought.

The extropy-chat guidelines do not make a distinction between private
insults and public insults. This is probably because they were drafted
to oppose the public flame wars that had appeared on the list.

The problem is with the aggressive individuals who like to escalate
the emotional content in discussions and walk the borderline of
'almost' personal attacks. These people are also quite likely to send
ferocious private emails with a view to intimidating their opponents
into stopping them posting contrary opinions to the list. Some lists
mention this problem in their guidelines and suggest that if you
receive a private flame message then you should forward the private
flame to the moderators for their consideration.

This seems reasonable to me. If someone disagrees with an opinion that
you posted onlist, you should not have to put up with receiving
private insults from them. I can well see how this would drive some
people away from the list.

BillK