debate : Java Glossary

by Roedy Green ©1996-2008 Canadian Mind Products
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debate

In an ideal world, debates on the Internet would pool people’s expertise, experience, ideas and intelligence to come to a consensus on some technical issue. However, this is not an ideal world. The debaters are first and foremost primates, and the first order of business for any self respecting primate is establishing dominance. This is why you will so frequently see these behaviours in debates:

Twisting what an opponent said to make it sound foolish.
Endlessly claiming that an opponent argued something foolish when they said nothing of the kind.
Nit picking about spelling or grammar.
Mindlessly repeating the same argument, without even reading what others had to say on the matter.
Refusing to acknowledge even the most obvious facts when presented by an opponent.
Pretending not to receive any well-argued post.
Bringing up over and over some error an opponent made in past.
Ad hominem attacks.

A certain amount of this is unavoidable. When it gets too much, you can say, "This debate is stalled. I think it is time to move on."

ad hominem
newsgroups
slippery slope

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