Insulting

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

ANDERS SIVEBAEK (to me?), 22-04-2001:

> What do you find most insulting? Calling another persons page crap
> or saying that one laughed from reading messages from the person?

I think that *any* insult is wrong. Sometimes messages look to me
as if they mean to say: 

"Hey! Let's just laugh at that silly IDIOT who is insulting us!"

That the replying person has become insulting *himself* doesn't seem
to be important at all. Why should it? All the blame goes to the person
who started it, anyway.

I think that is unfair. It reminds me of "halo" and "horn" effects:

  Halo effect: Someone does *one* thing good,
  so he must be good in *all* the other things he does.

  Horn effect: Someone does *one* thing bad,
  so he must be bad in *all* the other things he does.

If someone thinks that a person has started being offensive, then
I think he should try not to be the *next* person who's offensive.

If people decide that they have the right to answer insults by sending
insults themselves, it's their full right. But I think they then should
remember that they're guilty themselves, too, in having fueled a
flame-war.

There's a big difference in being defensive and being offensive.

And anyone who sents a request to ignore someone, should (IMO) know that 
they are not following their own advice. I myself look at such a request
as just another potential contribution to the flame-war. (By saying this
I'm not discussing the *right* to send such "ignore requests", I'm just
wondering what's the *point* of sending them.)

This is just my opinion in general. Not personally intended to anyone. 
As a matter of fact, I think these kind of situations are not limited to
this mailing list anyway, they're part of that other big subscription:
being a member of planet Earth. :-)


Best wishes,

--- Daniel