[governance] The greatest threat in the world today to peace....

[Norbert Bollow]

Rafik Dammak <rafik.dammak at gmail.com> wrote:

> a fine line needs caution and avoiding taking position against another
> member [..] no hard feelings here, but I would really like that you
> take time to think about it again with more self-criticism.

If I start treating this list with more caution than I have so far,
that will probably mean participating much less than I have been
doing. From various rational perspectives that may be a positive
outcome.

I'll freely admit that it is legitimately possible to come to a
different conclusion that I did on whether it was 100% appropriate for
me to express the opinion “it is off-topic on this list to complain
about a specific posting being off-topic”, in the way (and with the
timing) of how I did so.

I'll also freely admit that maybe someone with greater diplomatic
skills than I have might have been able to make this point in a more
tactful way etc.

I still think that this was a valid and important point to make though,
in the context of a discussion which was perhaps unfortunate but which
had started anyway.

By the way, the process itself which has led to this posting is IMO a
good illustration of why I think that criticizing someone else's
actions in making a specific posting is generally against the IGC's
posting rules, as that kind of person-oriented criticism significantly
contributes to making IGC a hostile environment in which many people
are reluctant to actively participate:

  Ok, so I made a posting that can be seen as questionable. And then I
  got dragged into a discussion about my action of having made that
  posting, and I got admonished to “take time to think about it again
  with more self-criticism.” And the only significant net effect is that
  I'm considering to become less active on this list.

The contrast here is with criticizing the substantive content of
substantive assertions that are being made, and that one disagrees
with.

Greetings,
Norbert

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