Subject: Re: flame wars, humor and serious request /was Re: Effective approaches From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 23:21:09 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3208807268919232@naggum.net> * Deepak Goel <deego@glue.umd.edu> > Anyone who indulges in a flame be banned for 5 days, 10 days for next > offense and 20 days.. and so on.. And just how do you propose to enforce this? Who will be the accusers, the judge and the jury? People who are unconcerned about such issues, prove that revengefulness and hatred is a poor basis for suggestions about other people's behavior. Just improve your own behavior. It is the only behavior you control. Trying to control anyone else's is just plain evil. However, it would be tremendously helpful if you could try grow a clue _why_ these things develop. Let me give you a hint: First, people who are unable to accept criticism and who will never back down from any of their positions regardless of any criticism, but attack the person who criticizes them directly if they are at least decent people, indirectly in the sort of polite ways that you strongly favor when they are not. Second, people who keep doing this have to defend their actions somehow, and the more they can blame somebody else, the worse they get, because they are freed of personal responsibility for their actions. Now, I tolerate neither of these and want people to be responsible for their very own actions and blaming nobody. Several people are unable to cope with such a requirement and go ballistic when they cannot blame someone else for their own behavior, and that someone is me, because it has become acceptable in this forum to blame me for the behavior of nutcases. If you help make sure people accept responsibility for their own actions and cannot blame me or anyone else, there will be no more flaming. If you are so interested in less flaming, you _will_ help in this regard. Thank you for your cooperation. ///