How Should We Treat Each Other Here?
silentbicycle: The problem with humor is when people trying to have an actual discussion are overwhelmed by people just posting tired slashdot cliches. Look at reddit...there are great comments there, but they're usually buried by pages of people snarking on the top comment. After a while, people stop trying. If you think you have a witty remark that doesn't really feed discussion, it's probably better to let it go, or to flesh it out with something more substantial.Not responding to something like that for 24 hours (or even just ten minutes) is a great idea. Off-the-cuff reactions are often pretty defensive. If you have an articulate counter-argument, that's different, of course.Also, as a general rule, it's probably worth trying to avoid being snide. In purely written conversations, it's easy enough to read criticism into comments that are just too terse, and you're responding to another person, not a text box. Be respectful, regardless of how you feel about their ideas. (I tend to edit my comments quite a bit. Often, on re-reading, I realize that my attempt at being concise made me sound like a dick instead.)