Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mstar!bob From: bob@MorningStar.COM (Bob Sutterfield) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: The Dynamics of Debate on USENET Message-ID: <1989Sep27.151220.8080@MorningStar.COM> Date: 27 Sep 89 15:12:20 GMT References: <35033@apple.Apple.COM> <46115@bbn.COM> <35037@apple.Apple.COM> Reply-To: bob@MorningStar.COM (Bob Sutterfield) Organization: Morning Star Technologies Lines: 17 In article <35037@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: ...here are the keys to avoiding flamewars: ... o If it's already been said, don't say it again. This is one of the problems with holding a pre-vote discussion. Once the original points have been made, and the merits and disadvantages catalogued, the discussion should quickly terminate. Any "me too"s violate this non-repetition principle. Which makes the discussion pretty quiet. Which makes it seem as if there isn't much interest in the topic or the newsgroup. Which makes the proposer think that it's not worth continuing efforts and advocacy, and not even bother holding the post-discussion vote. Of course, all this quiet is quite hypothetical, which shows that the current structure violates the principle of non-repetition, which shows that the current structure encourages flamewars. Sigh...