Arguing on the InternetBest Practice tips for people engaging in on-line

discussions for business or pleasure

Running Order

• Credits

• Using discussions to promote your Brand

– Business Brand

– Personal ‘Brand’

• Selected examples of Dos and Don’ts

• Conclusion

Credits

• Internet Arguing tips based on an article by Fergal Crehan @ tuppenceworth.ie/blog

– http://www.tuppenceworth.ie/blog/2009/05/18/arguing-on-the-internet/

• Presentation uses images from istockphoto.com and flickr.com

Running Order

• Credits

• Using discussions to promote your Brand

– Business Brand

– Personal ‘Brand’

• Selected examples of Dos and Don’ts

• Conclusion

YOUR INTERNET BRAND

Your Internet Brand

Your Internet Brand

What they read

What you write

How you treat others

Whether you are crazy

How you write

Where you write

Running Order

• Credits

• Using discussions to promote your Brand

• Selected examples of Dos and Don’ts

• Conclusion

ARGUING ON THE INTERNET

Do: Maintain a sense of Proportion

Do: Maintain a sense of Proportion

“…The most important of these attributes is a sense of proportion, a certain ironic distance that ensures one will not be sitting, furious, at one’s computer, refreshing a page over and over and responding with expressions of all-caps outrage to one’s adversary.”

Fergal Crehan – tuppenceworth.ie/blog

Proportion & Your Internet Brand

What they read

What you write

How you treat others

Whether you are crazy

How you write

Where you write

Do: Choose your opening position carefully

ExaggerationGeneralisationFactual Inaccuracy

ExaggerationGeneralisationFactual Inaccuracy

Don’t defend the indefensible

Position & Your Internet Brand

What they read

What you write

How you treat others

Whether you are crazy

How you write

Where you write

Don’t: Mention Hitler

Reductio ad Hitlerum- Leo Strauss, 1953

Usually taken to mean you’ve lost.

“Your suggestion that we do X sounds just like something from Hitler’s Germany”.

Don’t: Mention Hitler – Godwin’s Law

Probability

Length of discussion

1

0

“As an on-line discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.“

- Mike Godwin

Hitler & Your Internet Brand

What they read

What you write

How you treat others

Whether you are crazy

How you write

Where you write

Don’t: Talk about what you did in College as if it clinches your argument

Internet

I know a little bit about Physics as

well.

Don’t: Talk about what you did in College as if it clinches your argument

Image from jpockele on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpockele/136549706/

“Mules are always boasting that their

ancestors were horses.”

-German Proverb

Boasting & Your Internet Brand

What they read

What you write

How you treat others

Whether you are crazy

How you write

Where you write

Do: Make shure you check your spelling

Do: Make sure you check your spelling

• Poor spelling

– Makes you look sloppy

– Undermines your argument

– Can compound the problems raised by boasting

• “Oh, a Doctorate in Education but you can’t spell school properly”.

Spelling & Your Internet Brand

What they read

What you write

How you treat others

Whether you are crazy

How you write

Where you write

Don’t: Use Sarcasm

“Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.”- Samuel Butler (English Novelist)

Don’t: Use Sarcasm

Amused? You sound kind of furious to me

Sarcasm & Your Internet Brand

What they read

What you write

How you treat others

Whether you are crazy

How you write

Where you write

Exaggeration and Assumed Self-

Importance

A modern equivalent of “Reductio ad

Hitlerum”

No sense of Proportion

Left room and came back in twice

Don’t: Commit the Ultimate Arguing on the Internet Fail

Don’t: Commit the Ultimate Arguing on the Internet Fail

Columbo = UAIF

UAIF & Your Internet Brand

What they read

What you write

How you treat others

Whether you are crazy

How you write

Where you write

Don’t: Feed the Crazy

• Maintain sense of proportion

• Know when to stop discussing

• Let them have the last word if that’s what they want.

• Feeding the Crazy can make you look just as Crazy.

Running Order

• Credits

• Using discussions to promote your Brand

• Selected examples of Dos and Don’ts

• Conclusion

CONCLUSION

Arguing on the Internet

• Can be fun

• Can help develop your brand

– Personal

– Business

• Can backfire if you are not careful about simple Dos and Don’ts

Running Order

• Credits

• Using discussions to promote your Brand

• Selected examples of Dos and Don’ts

• Conclusion