please don't feed the Dan

[Keith Moore <[e-mail]>]

As usual, Dan Bernstein has managed to take a civil, technical discussion and 
turn
it into a sewer -- with insults, inappropriate accusations, and 
misattributions.

Dan is right some of the time, and occasionally he even manages to produce a
cogent and convincing argument.  So it's sometimes worthwhile to read his 
opinion
on a subject.

But I've never seen an occasion where responding to a message from Dan yielded
anything useful.  Either you agree with him, in which case he'll use it against
you later, or you disagree with him, in which case he'll respond with insults.

The result of replying to Dan is nearly always to polarize the discussion --
to change it from a discussion aimed at honing technical details or fine tuning
language, to a discussion about whether Dan is right or wrong.  

While such a discussion might be entertaining to those involved, it's certainly
not going to produce anything useful. 

So please - don't feed the Dan.  

Read his messages if you want to, but resist the temptation to respond.  If 
you
do respond, consider responding directly to the list, rather than replying to 
Dan
with a cc to the list.  Address the topic of discussion in your own language, 
with a new Subject header, rather than responding to his diatribes on a 
point-by-point basis.    

This will make it possible for the other list members to see the variation in
opinion, rather than how strongly people agree or disagree with Dan.

Keith