Excellent article about how to argue online

[Sid]

I live a happy Facebook free life for months now.
I should have kicked it out much sooner.
Twitter I've never tried. I use it though, for a tiny bit, because you guys keep posting all those Twitter links.
But I have no account there either.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Those rules only work when all people do agree to abide to a certain standard and really want to have a civilised argument; all premises you can most of the time forget on Twitter&Facebook, where most people just want to

a) shout out their opinion in the world and
b) shout against all contrary opinions.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I see a lot of the tactics this guy is outlining in the way Innula approaches discussions here at VVO, in my opinion Innula is probably the most effective debater iin our midst by a fairly considerable margin. I think he might be more correct than people are willing to give him credit for.

Conversely, some of the people I went out of my way NOT to engage on the old SLU were consistent violators of the first recommendation. They assumed bad faith and went guns-blazing in their replies, often based on a misunderstanding of the original post. It was all so tiresome and wholly avoidable by following these three simple guidelines.

I need to sticky the OP somewhere in my line of sight whenever I post. I think they're golden.

 

[Sid]

In life it's important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong.

That has become my golden rule over the ears, not only on the Internet.
It's not so good for post counts, but great for my blood pressure and general well being.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

Individuals wasting their time and sanity flaming bots has worse than no effect -that's energy that someone could be using more constructively somewhere else.

Like writing a bot that googles for salient keywords in the OP and then posts:

ABSOLUTE HORSESHIT! Get a clue moron... http://snopes.com/whatever-trumpoganda-specific-bs-debunked

 

[Free]

Is this thread a lousy example of how to argue online?

Discuss...

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Like writing a bot that googles for salient keywords in the OP and then posts:

What a place for a 404.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Is this thread a lousy example of how to argue online?

Discuss...

NO YOU!


......

How am I doing?

 

[Free]

NO YOU!
......

How am I doing?

Which side were you demonstrating?

 

[Casey Pelous]

Which side were you demonstrating?

The correct side, of course.

 

[Free]

The correct side, of course.

 

[Lianne Marten]

Honestly this thread is an example of how I argue online.

I write my opinion and then fuck off and do other stuff for a few days.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

In life it's important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong.

I confess I have a hard time with that sometimes. It's even worse when I am convinced I am right, but later on down the road, I discover they had been right all along.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

My brain is bad with specific details, but good with patterns. So most of the time when I argue with someone it's because their position has glaring internal logical inconsistencies, less because I have real-world facts on tap to draw from.

But when arguing with my arch conservative paternal unit.... I just shake my head and say "Your facts come from FOX which, at best, has a very weak respect for reality. I'm not at all interested in hearing what they've made you think is real or important."

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

It's even worse when I am convinced I am right, but later on down the road, I discover they had been right all along.

 

[Sid]

I confess I have a hard time with that sometimes. It's even worse when I am convinced I am right, but later on down the road, I discover they had been right all along.

It isn't 100% foolproof for me either. Sometimes I continue too long.
I very seldom stop reading though.
And in RL there is always the possibility to change subject or remembering to have something to do that can not wait.

 

[Ashiri]

When people refuse to act in good faith, changing goalposts, I ignore them. I rarely let them know I've ignored them to avoid thread drama.

 

[Essence Lumin]

Someone once rudely wrote "Winning an argument on the internet is like winning the Special Olympics. You've won but you're still retarded."

 

[Free]

Someone once rudely wrote "Winning an argument on the internet is like winning the Special Olympics. You've won but you're still retarded."

Didn't *you* just write it?

 

[Essence Lumin]

Didn't *you* just write it?

Yeah, I can be rude sometimes.