[NCLUG] Re: "Green" power.

[Jim Hutchinson]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 5:00 PM, John L. Bass <jbass at dmsd.com> wrote:

> There is also the small issue of how to avoid direct confrontation.


That's the beauty of citation. If someone takes issue with a claim they can
take issue with the citation and it's not a personal attack. It's much
easier to say oops, that source wasn't as good as I thought it was than to
say you're right I'm an idiot. Citation helps keep it friendly and
encourages people to double check before recalling something from memory
that could be not quite right.

If however, the standard for NCLUG is to cite every claim of fact, I will
> surely follow that ... so that you can clearly challenge those just puffing
> smoke to do the same.


I'm not here to make policy for the list. I'm only pointing out that
citation is a good thing and would help make things less personal when
debates get heated.

In addition, as people who are probably closer to the forefront of
technology, I think it would be good to model the use of citation. The
internet is already full of worthless crap so being proactive about checking
facts and critically evaluating information will help make the process
second nature and hopefully help make it more an expectation when dealing
with information whether it's from the web or not. Again, I speak here as a
high school teacher who sees where this could all be headed very quickly.
I'm not trying to be didactic, just proactive.

-- 
Jim (Ubuntu geek extraordinaire)
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