Shodan, my friend, there is one obvious difference between Franken and december. december was debating, Franken was writing comedy.
Well that and Franken wasn’t posting here either. . .
I don’t think that rule holds. I’m quite sure that you can call someone a racist in GD, for instance, and that is clearly attacking the poster.
My understanding, such as it is, is that calling someone a racist is OK because if a person has made a racist statement in a post he is in fact a racist. So that calling him a racist is the equivalent of saying that his post was racist. Similarly, a person who lied in a single post is a liar, so saying “your statement is a lie” and saying “you are a liar” are essentially equivalent. By contrast, a person can say something stupid in one post and still not be stupid, so saying “you are stupid” goes beyond saying “your post was stupid”.
But again, that is just me fumbling around at guessing what the overall principle might be. Who can truly plumb the depths of the SDMB rules? Only the moderators, and I’m not so sure even about them…
Only in the loosest sense of the word.
i’m right here.
i hated that guy just for the fact that some people think i’m him. i haven’t had a chance to read the thread. let me peruse a little and i’ll come back with my thoughts.
ps: oh and Scylla take note of what your arch rival has to say about me in my sig 