Re: FAQ diff -u [was: Monthly FAQ for Debian-user mailing list (last modified 20251101)]

[Jeffrey Walton <noloader@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Nov 3, 2025 at 12:14 PM <tomas@tuxteam.de> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Nov 03, 2025 at 11:59:21AM -0500, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > Otherwise, we have to endure messages like "Help with my question,
> > please" (September 2025),
>
> We have to, anyway. If you paid attention, that person didn't engage
> very much with the answers on-list.

That's called the Red Herring fallacy.  It is a logical fallacy
encountered during debate.  The discussion is about On-topic/Off-topic
posts, not how much a poster engages the list.

And it is not clear to me what an attention span has to do with the
argument.  I mostly stopped paying attention to the thread because it
was off-topic; not for some other reason like lack of comprehension
skills.  Perhaps it was an attempt at a passive-aggressive insult?

> That's the price we pay for having an open place. I think it's worth
> it.
>
> Yes, there are strange folks out there, but we all are strange in
> some way some of the time.

That is called the Hasty Generalization fallacy.  It is another logical fallacy.

> I, at least, am glad to get some tolerance and compassion whenever
> someone perceives me as strange (which, I'm sure, happens all the
> time!) instead of being yelled at.

That's called the Bandwagon fallacy.  It is another logical fallacy.

Jeff