Civility in the internet - rules for the road

From Civility in politics queries by Tyler Cowen. His guidelines aren't bad.

a. Don’t say anything on-line that you wouldn’t say to a person face-to-face. (And I really do hope this constrains you.)

b. Don’t ever think that an analogy with Nazis justifies your behavior, even if it is your behavior toward…Nazis.

c. Don’t lose your cool. Always trying to sound more intelligent than those you are arguing against is not a terrible starting point.

d. Don’t deploy what I call “loose adjectives,” the most common one being “stupid,” another being “dangerous.” You probably write with too many adjectives anyway.

e. Criticize the idea, not the person. Don’t presume you have such a wonderful sense of the motives of those you disagree with.

f. Learn how to learn from those who offend you.

g. Reexamine your writings and try to roughly measure the ratio of positive sentiments to negative sentiments. If that number is not ten to one or higher, reassess what you are doing.

Some additional thoughts from my own blogging. Because I recognize the lessons does not mean I am yet good at applying them.

Argue to learn, not to convince.

Truth is the goal, not winning.

Try (and its so hard) to address the facts in evidence, not the imputed motives or the implied argument.

Be specific and concrete.

Avoid troll traps. Do not emulate trolls, don't feed them.

Switch it up. Its easy to focus on what you perceive as the most important. The more you do that, the more tiresome you risk becoming.