How do you argue on the internet?
I have to hand it to you Bob, I write my comments on your book, I mail you and you respond to some random person on the internet. Impressed.
Now, this leads me to an open question about discussions on the internet that I have been pondering. Do I respond? Bear with me while I explain my train of thoughts.
There is an old picture floating around on the net that sums up my thoughts on having arguments over the internet. I won’t include it here since I think it is a bit harsh, so I will just link to it. Go ahead, click the link, I’m waiting. (drums fingers against tabletop). There, back now?
So, what is this picture trying to tell us? Arguments are best made when you can see each other. Just look at how quickly the comments turn into nonsense on sites like Slashdot and TechCrunch. I have to admit that full-on flamewars are starting to become more and more uncommon. Maybe we are slowly starting to learn how to argue over the Internet?
But I digresss. My real concern is this: in many newspapers (except The Economist which I will get to in a minute) I often see this happening:
- Newspaper publishes an editorial on a controversial subject
- Person figuring in the editorial sends in a reply to the editorial
- The newspaper publishes the received reply together with their reply to the reply!
See the problem here? The newspaper always wins! They get the final say. I’ve even see this go on several cycles where the newspaper receives a reply to their reply which they then in turn reply to. The Economist’s staff, as the classy english gentlemen that they are, handle it much more graciously:
- The Economist publishes an editorial
- Person figuring in the editorial sends in a reply
- The economist publishes the reply and trusts that the reader is intelligent enough to read the original article and the reply and make up their own mind on who is right.
How does this apply to the aforementioned comment on this blog? Well, if I reply I get the feeling that the discussion will go on until I get the final say. Note that I wont necessarily have won the argument, but since this is my blog I obviously have a lot more stamina in writing on it than anyone who comments.
Maybe it would be more gracious of me to let comments stand unanswered and thereby letting readers make up their minds themselves?
What do you think?