Ad hominem attacks

InformalEconomist

I would appreciate it if they stopped.
Argue the idea, not the person.

Example of gratuitous slam:

You must be a student of DavidMoran's school of getting it wrong.

There are many others.

David_Snowball

That seems like awfully sensible advice.

Life is chaotic for me right now. No, not the markets. We knew months ago that this was a plausible development and so I'm mostly ignoring it, though we are working on February profiles for three funds that have been doing admirably well. Locally, a raft of meetings on-campus today, drive to Chicago for two interviews tomorrow, then meeting with the college's Board of Trustees Friday through Sunday, back to campus for job interviews Sunday through Thursday, then the end-of-month writing and editing then the end-of-term (we have an odd academic calendar) listening and grading madness. (sigh)

So if I seem a bit quiet, it's just a time management strategy. If folks do seem to be becoming unhinged, drop Charles, Chip or me a note and we'll go have a talk with them. It's always important to maintain a sense of a supportive community, never more than when it seems "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."

Off to negotiate secretarial support arrangements.

David

davidrmoran

IE, yeah, thanks; many of us here have learned (have had to learn) to ignore certain postings.

heezsafe

@davidrmoran On top of everything else you have to do, you also have school administration duties to cover on the side? Where do you find the time? Truly, a man of many talents!

DanHardy

I don't post here too often. The threads are not very long and there are a lot of posts with just links to other sites that take my time. I feel that the ad hominem 'attack' issue is a bit tricky. People from different parts of the country and the world have different styles of writing. What is an 'attack' for one person may be a bit of winding some up to others. There is joke about the English: How do you know when a jet full of the English has landed? The engines are off but the whining continues. That whining could be misconstrued if it were posted here. In this world we need to keep an open mind to others' cultures ways of communicating. This isn't a white male, Eurocentric dominated world any more and those values should not be always imposed on others. So, I would suggest we look in the mirror to make sure we are not part of the problem.