Michael Wathen wrote on July 14, 1995:
>
>Does the publication of one's researches in a book necessarely make them
>more valid? Is "work in progress" not a useful basis for discussion?
>I. Stein
No, that's not the point. Vince's response was to set the record straight
with
some references. The post he was responding to was something that was
presented as "fact". The person making the claim gave no support for that
claim nor did they say something like "I have a strong suspicion that thus
and thus is so", or "my reasoning about this leads me to conclude that thus
and thus is so, due to....". If something is presented as a fact without any
qualifiers then the readers are led to conclude that the information is in
fact true and that it is common knowledge that most of the others who read
these posts are expected to know. If a person sets something out into the
discussion as "fact" then it discourages some meaningful dialog that would
have occurred because some are likely to feel it is not their place to
contradict someone. In other words, one way sets up a tug of war between
parties and the other encourages a free flow.
I see this same sort of thing on other Internet Groups. It's a common
problem
and I really believe that it disenchants many...am I alone?
Michael Wathen
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MY REPLY
No, Michael, you are not alone. Too many times statements are made on this
group that lead to impressions of fact. It makes it hard to weed through
fact and fancy. Sometimes I've done that fancy and it didn't work for me.
The free flow of information could be easier if people would list sources or
state that they are only recanting personal experience (asking: has anyone
experienced differently?).
Tim Coates
Music Dept.
University of Pukwana
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