Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to Misquoting me doesn't help your case

And The Quotes Were Where?
Mark Eby — (archived)

But I must admit my memory of the exact phrasing used has faded. You are correct that the phrasing you used does not equate with a simple shutup however the "never say anything like that again" ultimatum portion comes closer even with the conditional precedent.

This whole debate is one of those nasty spirals. You started out by making some comments I still think were inappropriate in a manner that I don't think was initially clear that you were speaking personally. Based on my current understanding I consider your comments only mildly inappropriate and think you have made a good effort to address the method issue. I over reacted due to a misunderstanding caused by your initial method of delivery. Others reacted by defending your right to do what you did without any fault being possible despite you later admitting things could have been handled better.

My initial reaction caused a real confrontational atmosphere which I wasn't willing to drop based on the ridiculous arguements brought forward later. I really doubt you guys are going to win debate prizes based on comments like dictionary definitions aren't valid, treason can only be defined as a crime except when one of us lambasts a poster for using the term preaching treason, and we are defending freedom of speech by telling people to shutup or that they can't use common definitions of words.

Robert are you clueless as to how much I contributed to the length of the flame on this topic? How long would it have been if you took out my posts and all those in response? The thread was long primarily because I took great offense at your actions and so many of the counter arguements were ridiculous. If you had simply challenged Gary on the use of his terms like a normal poster without ultimatums I wouldn't have been offended at all. I would have still disagreed, but not been nearly as angry or confrontational. Are you on drugs to have missed this obvious link? I'd also have been less miffed if Gary had stuck around and defended himself because I would not have blamed you for his loss.

If it had been handled differently we could have had a reasonable debate on what constitutes treason on CE without ever having to name names and make personal attacks. By personally attacking Gary rather than challenging his use of terms and trying to force the debate to flame you helped set the tone (as did my initial responses).

In the final analysis you did prove to have the best aptitude for moderation. You cooled off and sought compromise far more readily than others. I had thought Mary Anne would make a better moderator than you (other than sheer dedication to the cause) because I thought she could more easily see both sides of most arguements and initially she was doing the best, but once irritated she had less ability to let go than you. I know I'm certainly quicker to anger than you even if I'm not so beholden to one political persuasion. I'm also quick to cool off when people make reasonable attempts at mutual understanding.

Regards,
Mark

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (92 posts)