Discussion forums, titles and ideas

One of the things I enjoy about being on a discussion forum is that people are free to exchange ideas, although it can be difficult to read the “tone” of a post. It is great that all people who post here have to opportunity to respond to whatever they like, and that we can learn from the experience of others, or the fresh ideas of beginners.

On the subject of authority and titles, I personally feel that titles should be given to others out of respect. To clarify that, they are given out of respect from the student to the person that is doing the teaching, or has a high level of ability, but ALSO because the teacher maintains that respectful relationship with the people being taught. It is a mutual agreement. If either one breaks the agreement of respect, then its back to square one and there is no point in titles (in my opinion).

While it is true that people may not agree with each other about any particular view, in my opinion, it is important that people present reasons WHY they are for or against any particular idea. While certain peoples methods may be annoying or unconventional and seem not to hear the point of an argument, we should choose to answer them or not, but not to attack them as a person. There are several options…one is to ignore the post altogether, which I have noticed is used occasionally. But one thing I disagree with is using subtle slanderous statements that imply superiority, or in other words…character defamation (used to imply superiority) in order to push ones point rather than having a discussion about it.