Reusable Responses

2 minute read

• Endless Substitution Of New Claims Without Ever Admitting Error In Any One. For example, one common pattern in online discussions is the following. When someone is clearly proven to be wrong, they ignore the post containing the proof, and simply raise another point in favor of the overall view they want to convince you of. When that point is clearly shown to be wrong, they go on to the yet another one. And again. And again. It never ends. This process does nothing but waste everyone’s time. So, we provide a page that describes the process, and says that you won’t participate in it. By linking to our Endless page in your last response in the thread, you can bow out of that kind of discussion when you see it occurring, without having to spend the time it would take to explain why, or give the appearance that you simply gave up because you were wrong.

• Some Posts Are Simply Unworthy Of A Response. Quite frankly, some people write posts that are so uninformed or unthoughtful that they do not merit a response. Often, the same person produces a whole series of such posts. But despite their lack of quality, it remains true that if they don’t receive a response, many people following the thread might think the poster was right. And that it received no response only because there was no evidence that it was wrong. In such cases you should bow out to stop wasting your time, but in order to not give the wrong impression, you can link to our Unworthy page.