Personal attacks in the comments

(Bumping this up again, with additional comment – originally posted 11-15-05 at 11:23 a.m.)

(Emphasis added)

Unfortunately, I do not get a chance to participate in the comments sections here as much as I used to. There are also times where I release comments from regulars without reading them all the way through.

After sifting through about the last 10 or 15 posts here, I have noticed several personal attacks within the comments sections of each which I didn’t catch due to time constraints. I ususally try to edit attacks out as they add nothing to the debate.

I am making a call right now for the personal attacks to STOP. That means stop calling individual commenters here unAmerican, stupid, mindless, wackjobs, etc. Tackling a political party in general is one thing, but comments here are starting to get too personal towards each other. Let’s please treat each other with respect, and stop questioning our fellow commenter’s ability to *think*. Debate constructively, not destructively.

Again, I cannot monitor comments here as much as I used to, so I am asking everyone to please police themselves and abide by this policy. I reserve the right to edit out anything I feel is an personal insult when/if I catch it. I don’t want comments to turn into an insult free-for-all. If I see that comments in a certain thread are getting too out of hand, I will just shut the thread down altogether. I know sometimes debating the opposition can get very frustrating (that goes for either side), but we can do a better job of refuting arguments based on facts, not getting personal.

There are people here who are continuing to do this in spite of my known wishes about how I want things to run in the comments section. Please respect my wishes. I am asking one more time to please stop it. I won’t ask again. Instead the comments just won’t show up at all and the repeat violators will be asked to leave until further notice.

Any questions, please email me – contact info is below my pic on the right side of this page.

I should add that comments some people consider personal attacks are debatable. The best advice I can give is to either ignore what you feel is a personal attack and go after the rest of your opponent’s argument or toughen up and refute it – I’ll do the best I can to keep on top of comments in the future.

Bottom line: debate on the issues and NOT on each other!