Stop Bashing Posts and Posters

If you call someone or their post stupid or moronic or anything like that, it's bashing. There are at least four problems with that.

First, it's not what TideFans is about.

Second, way too often it causes the thread to devolve into schoolyard tit-for-tat. You can almost hear PeeWee Herman saying, "I'm rubber, you're glue."

Third, it foments personal hurts and grudges between posters that often last long after the discussion is finished. Which runs counter to the goals of TideFans. I can't tell you how many times Mods have to deal with one poster reporting another saying, "He's picking on me!"

Fourth, it contributes to a combative overall feel for the board as a whole, far beyond the thread at hand. Which circles back to #1 -- it's just not what TideFans is about.

The fact that SEC Rant and al.com would allow it, but TideFans won't, is exactly the point. Bluntly, if you feel the need to write that way, go. All sorts of other boards will welcome you.

If you say, "I see it differently. Here's what I think and why...." or something similar, that's debate.

It causes the best ideas to rise to the top and inferior ones to fall by the wayside. It makes everyone on the board more knowledgeable and better able to articulate their own positions. Even if the debate reaches a point that they have to agree to disagree, the debaters understand each other....but they seldom dislike each other at a personal level.

It's a lot easier to tear down than it is to build. Likewise, it's a lot easier to call a person or their ideas stupid, idiotic, moronic, etc. than it is to lay out a logical, internally-consistent position. But it does nothing to address the issue. That's part of the point, too.

Articulating a logical and internally consistent thought process does address the issue and contributes to the formulation of a consensus -- or at least an understanding of why the other guy thinks the way he does.
 
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