Hello all,
on an IRC discussion I came out with this comment:
enrico> discussions in Debian share problems with political discussions IRL:
people voice their impressions as if they were their opinions
So, if that is a problem, how do we fix it?
We can't fix it by saying "take all messages as if they were impressions
and not opinions" because then people who actually voice their opinions
would not be taken seriously.
We can't fix it by saying "only voice your opinions and not your
impressions" because no one would take a suggestion that sounds like
"shut up".
We can't fix it by saying "make it clear when you speak of your
impressions and when you speak of your opinions", because sometimes it's
just not clear to the writer himself. Also, readers would not
necessarily pay attention to the distinction.
One way we can fix it is by saying "if you're asking for people's
opinions, give them only one narrow issue to voice their impressions
about". This acknowledges the problems and tries to avoid a discussion
that escalates along many divergent but related side topics.
Impressions? Opinions? :)
Ciao,
Enrico
--
GPG key: 1024D/797EBFAB 2000-12-05 Enrico Zini <enrico@debian.org>
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