Newsgroups: news.admin
Path: utzoo!sq!msb
From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: The Dynamics of Debate on USENET
Message-ID: <1989Sep28.212956.19441@sq.sq.com>
Reply-To: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto
References: <35033@apple.Apple.COM> <46115@bbn.COM> <35037@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 89 21:29:56 GMT

Chuq Von Rospach (chuq@Apple.COM) writes:

> ... you don't, for instance, get into the matter
> of the marital status of your opponents mother when arguing about whether
> emacs or vi is a better editor. You stick to emacs and vi.
> ...
> o Discuss the posting, not the poster.

This is precisely the reason why, when I post a followup, it rarely
includes a line saying who wrote the article.  I do include it when
I want to point out that the person is a noted authority, or if it
makes my own article more readable for some reason, but rarely otherwise.
I commend this practice to other people who want their articles not to
be mistaken for flames.

(When I do include such a line, it never includes the quoted-article's-
Message-ID noise.  If someone wants that, they can look at the References.)

I don't understand why Chuq started this topic in news.admin rather than
news.misc, but as there are sure to be other followups wending their
way here even as I type, I'm not going to even suggest moving it.

-- 
Mark Brader			"The three dots '...' here suppress a lot
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto	         of detail -- maybe I should have used
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com	 four dots."			-- Knuth

This article is in the public domain.