There can be real advantages in carrying out a discussion on the net rather than face to face. The trouble is that so many people don't use those advantages.

What I mean is that in a net discussion we have the chance to reflect on what we are saying, and what other people are saying, and make sure to get it right. We can make distinctions between what we disagree with and what we might actually agree with.

In a face to face discussion it is very easy to misunderstand what someone says, and react to what we mistake them as saying.

The pity is that too often what could be a useful discussion, one which helps is to get clearer in our head about what we believe, and where we should perhaps modify our beliefs, get's overtaken by a pointless mud-throwing session.

It's not stuff like "bad language" that matters, it's failure to read intelligently what other people write, and pay proper self-critical attention what we write ourselves.

It's not difficult to make it clear when we are not being fully serious. Different cultural understanding of irony can be a problem perhaps, but it's easy enough to clear those up if we have a bit of patience.

Carrying on quarrels from thread to thread is poison.