phantomuk wrote:
There were actually multiple postings in that thread, from OhioSteve, Donnie and PhantomUK that I would consider to be personal attacks. I think we need to get people to avoid making statements that involve lots of use of the word "you" or people's names when responding to an argument.
For example, it would be perfectly acceptable (I think) to say, "The claim that X = Y is wrong" or "The claim that X=Y is a lie." The second one is a lot more confrontational and is likely to be taken as such, which will most likely escalate to a flame fest.
It would not be acceptable to say, "You are a liar, X does not equal Y" or "You lie all the time, X does not equal Y." Other things like "you are pulling facts out of your ass" would also be a direct attack (even if they are

). It would be perfectly acceptable to say, "I disagree with your assertion because of X, Y and Z."
I would think these are common sense rules of personal interaction, but I've learned from this crowd that nothing can be taken for granted!
Because of the extensive nature of the attacks that I perceived in that thread, Wayne's actions seem appropriate, but we really do need to find better ways to get everyone to calm down with the personal attacks.
-josh