Hi, Jonathan Walther wrote: > The only problem is people having thin skins. To function in ANY group > setting, one needs a thick skin, and a vigorous will to defend oneself.
Sorry, but I disagree, vigorously in fact. My experience says that there are enough groups out there where personal attacks simply aren't tolerated. I'm not going to call anybody names because their argument and/or their code sucks. I'm not even going to call the argument / code itself names (i.e., "your code sucks") because (a) just mentioning the specific problems I have with it generally gets my point across MUCH better anyway, and (b) some people don't see the difference between the two and react with counterattacks. Examples abound. :-/ Mind you, I'm not saying that I'm a 100% Nice Guy. I am saying, though, that I'd much prefer being told off if/when I slip into disparaging language myself, than to deal with an environment where that's the group standard. -- Matthias Urlichs
