Attacks and Belief in Comments

Posted on July 9, 2003 in Blogging

Every now and then, I get a visitor who comes after something I said. Words fly and when I am finished dealing with the often flimsy criticism, I settle back and realize that they haven’t stated what they believe.

Sometimes I have found, when they are challenged, that they don’t want to state their beliefs. “It’s not an issue here,” they will insist. I feel very differently: that when you open your mouth in a discussion and start criticizing a point of view, where you are coming from enters the issue and must be stated.

Those who want to just attack strike me as a species of roach deserving classification or perhaps a variety of sock puppet with nothing but a fist inside of it.

So I wonder what to do about this. Put words in my comments template to the effect that I expect that in any disagreements they state what they believe about the matter at hand? Do I ignore those who won’t?