What happened to civility and decorum within all topics?

Originally posted by neformore
And.... there goes your argument, right out of the window.

You want people to be civil, and you use a phrase like that.

Thank you and good night Gracie.

Notice the connection between "MORONS" and "ATTACK" as in ad hominem. This does not indicate a connection to "DEBATE" and "CIVILITY". Precisely the issue at heart in this thread.

Anyone knows that when someone cant win an argument, a moron will turn to ad hominem attacks against the other protagonist. Or is torpedoing a conversation with a high and mighty response, wielding the 'admin' badge, a way to bypass this?

I call someone who ad hominems a civil protagonist a moron. Because it's the truth.

Rev.

Originally posted by The Revenant
Anyone knows that when someone cant win an argument, a moron will turn to ad hominem attacks against the other protagonist.

Surely the way to lose a debate is to admit that you're wrong, or that you will have to agree to disagree, and walk away head held high?

Morons can't do this.

Rev.

reply to post by The Revenant

Anyone knows that when someone cant win an argument, a moron will turn to ad hominem attacks against the other protagonist. Or is torpedoing a conversation with a high and mighty response, wielding the 'admin' badge, a way to bypass this?
I call someone who ad hominems a civil protagonist a moron. Because it's the truth.
Rev.

I think most would agree you just called yourself a moron..

And I bet poor Chad did a face palm when he saw your post.

Luckily ALL skeptics are not like that...

Originally posted by backinblack
I think most would agree you just called yourself a moron..

And I bet poor Chad did a face palm when he saw your post.

Luckily ALL skeptics are not like that...

edit on 17-1-2011 by backinblack because: (no reason given)

Are you purposefully trolling trying to bait me? Or does it just come naturally?

You've clearly not read the WORDS I posted, and made up your own mind (without understanding) what I was trying to say. You have an agenda, and I find it sad that you take it upon yourself to act like this.

Call a spade a spade. Trolls, and people who consistently ad hom, are morons, and should think twice about participating on ATS.

Rev.

reply to post by The Revenant

Call a spade a spade. Trolls, and people who consistently ad hom, are morons, and should think twice about participating on ATS.

Your merely digging a deeper hole for yourself..
Regardless of what you think of someone, there is no need for insults.
Intelligent people can argue without lowering themselves to that level..
It's your choice...
And I'm NOT trying to bait anyone.Merely calling a spade a spade as you suggest.

Originally posted by The Revenant
Call a spade a spade. Trolls, and people who consistently ad hom, are morons, and should think twice about participating on ATS.

Calling someone a moron is a direct attack on them, likely to inflame a situation and is also likely to land you on the wrong end of the T&C.

As soon as someone resorts to name calling - any kind of name calling - they lose credibility, and their argument.

Originally posted by neformore
As soon as someone resorts to name calling - any kind of name calling - they lose credibility, and their argument.

Fair point. I have called nobody in this thread a moron. But we all know that trolls and ad-hom addicts are!

See past the language, see the point I'm making.

Rev.

I wanted to follow up on my previous post by focusing on something I find very uncivilized in relation to postings on ATS. I find it very frustrating and particularly uncivilized when my post is met with a response that is all things but a direct response.

For instance in a recent thread I asked for proof of a poster's claim. Rather than reply to me with the proof I requested the poster responded with a completely irrelevant response. A third poster responded with a reminder that the proof I asked for was not offered and that response was met with another response filled with irrelevant syntax. This same poster then altered a historical document to fit their argument and immediately thereafter with great audacity accused my quoted sections of that document from Wikipedia as being fraudulent. My reply demanding an explanation for this behavior was ignored and as of now has not been responded too. Here again I let the issue rest in order to maintain a civilized decorum and not be seen as going on a "witch hunt" for the poster.

I don't think it is very civilized to conduct oneself in a debate in such a fashion as I have described above. We must all remember that dissent is protected the same as the speech from which the dissent originates. We must also all realize that ignoring dissent doesn't strengthen our position and that it does in fact weaken an argument or viewpoint. Only when dissent is recognized and responded with a pointedly on topic response can it be said that a debate is truly civilized and that the dissent has been appropriately addressed.

Furthermore I feel that when someone uses a tactic of disinformation or deceit that person has behaved in an extremely uncivilized and undignified manner befitting of a TOS violation. Some days ago I addressed just such an issue in a thread where a poster was "spicing" up an article from the OP with unfounded data; data which dramatically affected the interpretation of the OP. When I informed the poster of their error I was met with a U2U with an extremely offensive subject line along with a message body rather juvenilely conveying a warning that I had been reported to the Mods. Rather than pass this along to the Mods I made the decision to let my posts stand and to ignore this U2U I speak of. I did this because I felt it was the most dignified thing to do. I did not want to reply to the email for that would have lowered me to the level of the one that sent it nor did I wish to resort to the mods for I knew the ground upon which I stood in the thread was solid. As of today I have yet to hear from any Mod regarding that thread.

I hope that what I have written here is well digested by those whom read it. I truly feel that when instances such as the ones above become a rarity on ATS rather than their currently held "insignificant annoyance" status that this site will be better than ever and closer to achieving the maximum realization of the almost limitless potential ATS holds than it already is.

Even though there have been no posts in the last 2 days on this thread hopefully someone will read this.

How bout if someone attacks someone else and the mods receive an alert about it they (mods) delete the post as per usual and ban the attacker for lets say a week.

Ban them from posting, u2u's, everything except signing in and reading threads, maybe then said attacker will think twice the next time they feel like calling someone a moron or whatever.

Just a thought, if this wouldn't work please reply or u2u me why it wouldn't work or even if it would i would like to know.

Jr.