personal attacks

Subject: personal attacks
From: Thom Remington <remingtf -at- ENGG-MAIL -dot- LVS -dot- DUPONT -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 11:23:05 -0400

Fellow techwr-lers:

In the couple of years that I've been on the list, I've found myself
astonished from time to time by vitriolic personal attacks. Calling this
"flaming" is, in my view, only a way of softening the fact that these are
direct personal attacks.

Ask yourself if you would say the same things to a person's face. If not,
why say it here?

It all reminds me of graffiti. Go anywhere, and you'll see names, initials,
and other messages written, scratched, and carved on surfaces. What that
tells me is that whoever felt compelled to deface something with his or her
name has no common sense and no sense of self.

Flaming - attacking a person who expresses and idea, rather than attacking
the idea itself - is a little like graffiti. It's inane, and it's something
people only do when they don't have to face you.

Before you attack someone, ask if you'd do it face to face. If not, don't do
it via e-mail either.

If you don't like my ideas, say so. You don't know me, and you can't comment
intelligently on who I am or what I am.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thom Remington remingtf -at- engg -dot- dnet -dot- dupont -dot- com
DuPont External Affairs
Information Design & Development
http://www.dupont.com
http://www.concentric.net/~remingtf
Speaking for myself, not for DuPont.

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