Dear Tim, I'm posting this privately because I'm really sick of this discussion and I do not want to contribute to it any more. With all the due respect: I do not need to apologise, because I think my first sentence was not distorting. However it may have been misinterpreted, as you did, therefore I posted my second message to clarify what I wanted to say. You are free to deduct whatever you want from your first message, my sentence was clearly stating that Ken did not want to say anything stupid, if you want to understand something else, you are free to do that. We have different idea, for instance on what is fake and what is not, Ken himself has defined Cindy as "fake". Concerning the construction of what we write, you may be right, but this is a discussion forum in which not all have the same time to write long and very well argumented messages (we had this discussion previously in the forum). If you believe those who cannot afford to spend hours writing messages should leave the list, please propose this rule to the list owners. Once the rule is accepted I will accept it and leave immediately. I usually post very few messages because I do not have time even for a short message. this doesn't mean that I justify any destructive message, but the message you read was clear enough for me. My second message made it clearer, should I apologise for everyone who misinterprets my thoughts? Regards Nicola Associate Professor Nicola Morelli, PhD School of Architecture and Design Aalborg University, Denmark Web: www.aod.aau.dk/staff/nmor ________________________________ From: Tim Smithers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thu 12/16/2004 10:22 AM To: Nicola Morelli Cc: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: False personas (aliases and avatars) on the phd-design list Dear Nicola, Forgive me for coming back to you on this, but I do think that there is more to discuss here. After an opportunity to revise your earlier message, you would now say: "... periodically new people come in with fake names and feel free to send us any kind of stupid message. This was certainly far from Ken's purpose ..." No amount of subsequent revision of words can remove any effect they had when first expressed: in this case, misrepresentation. In these circumstances it is not revision that is needed, it is an apology. Like Speech Acts [1], list posts--List Acts, we might call them--act on and so change the world, often in non-reversible ways: a world of people and their emotions, feelings, thoughts, desires, beliefs, ideas, ideals, in this case. If damage or hurt is done by a List Act, even inadvertently, a further act that attempts to repair this damage or hurt is needed: not an attempt to re-write the history of it. This is what Ken did. But, even your revision does not remove what, for me is the offending implication: that Cindy's posts were stupid. Even if you say it was certainly not Ken's purpose to have Cindy post stupid messages, your (revised) statement still leaves the implication that you think, or would like us to believe that they were (nonetheless) stupid. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not trying to defend what Ken did here: that is not what we are discussing. We have moved on from that, as Evandro Guimaraes would wish us too. What we are discussing is how open and fair discussion and argument can take place on this list, and what is the nature and basis of the trust that is needed for this. Fair and effective discussion and argument depends upon constructive actions. Searle's Speech Acts theory gives us a theory for the 'mechanics' of these actions--in our list discussion world of List Acts. From this point of view, you can see that emotional content in List Acts is important as it can be used to achieve or secure the desired effects: emotional content can and does effectively refine List Acts so that they do what the author wants them to do. What we can also see, is that List Acts that are all, or almost all, emotional expression easily and often result in misrepresentation and distortion. For fair and open discussion and argument, these are destructive acts. Worse still is when such emotional expressions are apparently used to prepare for and justify the presentation of judgements of the (now misrepresented and distorted) state of affairs. For this list to work as an open and fair places for constructive discussion and argument, each of us, both posting to and reading this list, need to be able to trust that the posts are prepared and sent as constructive contributions to an ongoing discussion or debate: it is thus the form and construction of the post that we must be able to trust in, not simply (or even) the person or persons who posted it. This is so that when genuinely constructive attempts fail, and cause hurt or damage--as they occasionally will--further appropriate List Acts (apologies) can quickly take effect to sooth the hurt and damage done. Careless and ill-considered emotional expressions of indignation, hurt, or wrongs do not serve to do this, no matter how strongly felt and properly justified and real the feelings of indignation, hurt, and wrongs are. For this list to work as the PhD Discussion list it was set up to be, and which it has very largely succeeded in being--a list where people can engage in, learn, and develop the effective discussion and argument abilities basic to all kinds of research--we need to be able to trust list members to not use it as the place to express their emotional judgements: these can and should be done privately. This list is not for anybody to say just anything in just any way because he or she feels the need to, or that he or she must or should. It is for genuine attempts at constructive discussion and argument. If there is a disease that would destroy this list, it is the disease of posting distorting and self centred judgemental out bursts. Best regards, Tim References 1. John Searle, 1969. Speech Acts: An essay in the philosophy of language, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. (This presents a theory of speech acts replying on an idea of constructive rules.)