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Originally Posted by agzg
Yes but I've participated in a great many more threads than DI has, and have posted here a lot longer. There's something to be said to learning the tendencies of other posters, if only for the simple help at knowing who to engage in what way.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UGAalum94
Yep, and sometimes people do really dislike particular other users and their posts as an ongoing pattern. However, if you're verbally scatter shooting lots of people's unstated beliefs in a thread that's probably not it.
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In my opinion it's important to draw the line between knowing how people are likely to post, and making the assumption that it says something about them as a person. Even if someone has thousands of posts, in reality you know nothing about the person who is posting - you don't know their background, their experiences, and their core values.
Where posters make a big mistake is where they go from "I don't agree with your posts" to "I don't like you," or "I think you're a racist/bigot/whatever."
As I've always said, I know two people on this site personally (both of whom I like as people) - one (KSigRC) has been a good friend for almost 10 years, and one (nme525) I met a few times in Boston. Other than that, I don't know anyone on here, and I won't presume to make assumptions about who they are and what core values they hold dear. I don't think that would be at all fair, or smart - at the end of the day, it's posting on a website, and it's really not that important.