wow.
Individual spats (as I assume is the case here) should be treated differently imho. You should take into account the following before retaliating with ratings - if ever:
To the others I will say "Bite me"
I have quite enough problems without thinking about 6" transparent heels soled with titanium, on a transparent strap peep-toe in black patent.
Even the Pope might be tempted by kinky boots ;-) You can't be me, I'm taken
But in my dope-crazed buddha-like state, I also like to encourage people to be good at ET. It is probably some misplaced faith in St. Jérôme as a saviour for our time. I love a good clique as well as the next man or woman, but the planet is the biggest clique there is.
Let's all try to get along until my next overdose. You can't be me, I'm taken
I personally consider it inappropriate to downrate somebody that you're in an argument with, and I make it a point not to do it. It has the potential to turn into a ratings war, which is counterproductive and goes nowhere good.
Nobody would probably have complained if you had rated the comment with a 2, as you did the earlier one. We might have thought to ourselves that it was borderline ratings abuse, but we would have given you the benefit of the doubt.
But a 1 is a troll rating, and should be used for only the most egregious comments. I do not feel that Izzy's comment qualified, especially given what you had just said to her in the previous comment. Who's to judge whether what you said was worse than what she said? And do we really want to get into a pointless discussion of who hit whom first? Do you see how this could become a cycle of retribution? None of us wants that.
In general, 1 and 0 ratings are very sparingly handed out here at ET. This may differ from some other blogs, but this is how we do things. We use them for comments that cross the lines of acceptable discourse, either in terms of racist or otherwise offensive content, extreme personal attacks, or other obviously over-the-top stuff.
You may not have noticed that, although you and I have had several rather heated arguments here, I have never given you any rating other than a 4. My own policy, as I mentioned, is not to issue any ratings to people while I'm arguing or vigorously debating with them, unless they say something that I genuinely feel deserves a 4. My feeling is that if a person is engaged in a heated argument with somebody else, that person is perhaps not in the best position to judge which comments are over the line, and the odds are good that both parties have said something intemperate.
You have previously been warned about both retaliatory downrating and ad hominem attacks. If you are having trouble judging the right tone and tenor with which to discuss contentious issues, I would urge you to err on the side of caution.
What we want here at ET is productive discussion and debate. We need not always agree, and indeed up to a point I think the site benefits when we disagree, but we have traditionally tried to do so in a relatively civil way. Please do try to keep that in mind.
