Sparky2
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2016
- Messages
- 785
- Reaction score
- 407
- Location
- Northern Alabama
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Other
Guys and gals,
I have learned quite a bit in my years posting to web-forums.
Though I am only an infrequent visitor to debatepolitics, I have been a moderator on similar boards in the past. Additionally, I moderated on two aviation-related web forums, and am currently moderating a guitar web forum, axecentral.
I offer this information not to brag or boast, but rather to lay the ground work for some bits of advice I am about to offer up.
Please read and heed the admonitions below, and PLEASE pass them on to your friends. Make them a cornerstone of your posting policy here at debatepolitics.com:
A. You can’t prove anything on the internet. The best you can hope to do is to provide credible and compelling-enough evidence, and then leave the reader to draw their own conclusions regarding the strength of your argument. Based, of course, upon the quality of your evidence, and the eloquence of your delivery.
(Google, ‘the scientific method’. Study what you find. It’s all in there.)
Whenever you shout, “look at my proof, see what I have proven”, or, “I have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt” you make yourself look really foolish.
On that note;
B. The eloquence of your delivery, and your very ability to sway or convince somebody, depends upon your posting in a manner that makes you look credible and fairly well-educated.
If you submit posts that are full of misspellings, grammatical errors, punctuation errors, and egregious capitalization errors, YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST THE DEBATE. Because you made yourself look like a dumb a$$.
Use spell-check and grammar-check, and take care not to sabotage your own arguments by posting in a manner that makes you look like a vaguely retarded elementary school child.
C. Do not rush to label people.
Do not hasten to put other posters into convenient categories or boxes.
Stop with the knee-jerk labeling.
I get it, some posters LOVE to embrace the convenient categories of:
‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’
‘Christian’ or ‘atheist’
‘pro-life’ or ‘pro-choice’.
But the reality is this;
Many of us are politically-independent.
A lot of us are on the fence about our spirituality, and we choose not to wear anybody’s convenient labels.
Most people have mixed feelings about abortion, and can see both sides of the argument.
So, take the time to listen to the message.
Ponder the information.
Do not immediately, after reading one or two sentences, screech and yowl, “Oh, you’re just a right-wing gun nut”, or, “Christ on a popsicle stick, another bleeding-heart liberal”!
D. Lastly, consider how you present yourself. If you come across as measured, even-tempered, and determined, you have at least a tiny chance of swaying somebody.
If you come across as a kook and a fanatic, you have NO chance of swaying anyone.
Picture some guy standing on a corner, screeching at the top of his lungs, and waving crudely-drawn pamphlets regarding the coming apocalypse.
Do you think people are going to believe that guy, or are they going to view him as a nut-job, and avoid him like the plague?
Thanks for your time and attention. I do hope that you will heed my advice, and consider what I have told you.
You have an incredible responsibility, this business of posting to the internet. In a world of misinformation and disinformation, in this world of partisan-political, nonsensical division, you have the opportunity to offer meaningful, intelligent, and enlightening discourse.
Don’t take that responsibility lightly, friends.
Thanks for reading.
:2wave:
I have learned quite a bit in my years posting to web-forums.
Though I am only an infrequent visitor to debatepolitics, I have been a moderator on similar boards in the past. Additionally, I moderated on two aviation-related web forums, and am currently moderating a guitar web forum, axecentral.
I offer this information not to brag or boast, but rather to lay the ground work for some bits of advice I am about to offer up.
Please read and heed the admonitions below, and PLEASE pass them on to your friends. Make them a cornerstone of your posting policy here at debatepolitics.com:
A. You can’t prove anything on the internet. The best you can hope to do is to provide credible and compelling-enough evidence, and then leave the reader to draw their own conclusions regarding the strength of your argument. Based, of course, upon the quality of your evidence, and the eloquence of your delivery.
(Google, ‘the scientific method’. Study what you find. It’s all in there.)
Whenever you shout, “look at my proof, see what I have proven”, or, “I have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt” you make yourself look really foolish.
On that note;
B. The eloquence of your delivery, and your very ability to sway or convince somebody, depends upon your posting in a manner that makes you look credible and fairly well-educated.
If you submit posts that are full of misspellings, grammatical errors, punctuation errors, and egregious capitalization errors, YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST THE DEBATE. Because you made yourself look like a dumb a$$.
Use spell-check and grammar-check, and take care not to sabotage your own arguments by posting in a manner that makes you look like a vaguely retarded elementary school child.
C. Do not rush to label people.
Do not hasten to put other posters into convenient categories or boxes.
Stop with the knee-jerk labeling.
I get it, some posters LOVE to embrace the convenient categories of:
‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’
‘Christian’ or ‘atheist’
‘pro-life’ or ‘pro-choice’.
But the reality is this;
Many of us are politically-independent.
A lot of us are on the fence about our spirituality, and we choose not to wear anybody’s convenient labels.
Most people have mixed feelings about abortion, and can see both sides of the argument.
So, take the time to listen to the message.
Ponder the information.
Do not immediately, after reading one or two sentences, screech and yowl, “Oh, you’re just a right-wing gun nut”, or, “Christ on a popsicle stick, another bleeding-heart liberal”!
D. Lastly, consider how you present yourself. If you come across as measured, even-tempered, and determined, you have at least a tiny chance of swaying somebody.
If you come across as a kook and a fanatic, you have NO chance of swaying anyone.
Picture some guy standing on a corner, screeching at the top of his lungs, and waving crudely-drawn pamphlets regarding the coming apocalypse.
Do you think people are going to believe that guy, or are they going to view him as a nut-job, and avoid him like the plague?
Thanks for your time and attention. I do hope that you will heed my advice, and consider what I have told you.
You have an incredible responsibility, this business of posting to the internet. In a world of misinformation and disinformation, in this world of partisan-political, nonsensical division, you have the opportunity to offer meaningful, intelligent, and enlightening discourse.
Don’t take that responsibility lightly, friends.
Thanks for reading.
:2wave: