Subject:
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Re: Lego Direct (was Re: Georgia LEGO Outlet is Cool!)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.general
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Date:
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Wed, 29 Mar 2000 03:27:37 GMT
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"Scott A" <s.arthur@hw.ac.uk> writes:
> This happens quite a lot (too much?) on LUGNET. Once positions have been
> adopted in debates, the same points get raised again and again... and the
> same response is given each time. Ultimately, the whole debate turns into a
> shouting competition, and then it all fizzles out after some name calling.
> Consensus is seldom reached. I do not have enough experience of the "net" to
> say if this is a problem that only LUGNET has(?).
I's widespread throughout the Internet. There are many newsgroups on
apparently non-controversial topics that are now permanent warzones over
issues that would appear trivial to most outsiders.
However, I think the name calling or use of offensive language are just
symptoms of a larger problem. Firstly that people don't respect the right
of others to have a different opinion. And secondly that people don't
have the wisdom to realise that it is pointless to continue a debate
with people who have strong opinions to the contrary; you will not change
their minds.
The advantage that lugnet newsgroups have over regular Usenet newsgroups
is that there *is* someone who can exert control over the participation of
individuals.
I don't think one can easily codify what is and isn't acceptable
behaviour; the extremes are easy to describe but the boundary isn't.
For example, debates about the relative offensiveness of certain words are
unlikely to reach consensus, as such things are related to the dialects
of language we each speak and the cultural context we each inhabit. The
real issues are not about the words used but about the attitudes and
intentions that underlie them.
Kerry
=============================================================================
Dr Kerry Raymond, Distinguished Research Fellow E-mail: kerry@dstc.edu.au
CRC for Enterprise Distributed Systems Technology Phone: +61 7 3365 4310
University of Queensland 4072 Australia Fax: +61 7 3365 4311
=========================================== WWW: http://www.dstc.edu.au/kerry
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