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serynI made a minor error. I mistakenly referred to an incident as invoking Godwin's Law. It was actually a corollary.
This is the relevant part (for those who don't follow links):
It is, according to the wiki, a canonical corollary in that Godwin himself adopted it, and many other people consider this the actual principle of Godwin's Law. (Myself included.)
The original GL was that the likelihood of any conversation including a reference to [genocidal World War II German leadership] approaches 1 (100% likely to happen) as a conversation grows in scope or length.
When someone says "Jews and American Indians have been discriminated against [by people who think like you]." That's perhaps subtle, but you've still implied that someone is a genocidal monster and it will terminate any threads in any well-moderated forum. In strictly moderated forums it would get you booted or banned. In the original USENET the appropriate response is, "Bye." Because there is nowhere the thread can legitimately go from there. It was one of the failings of an unmoderated forum that there was no one who could stop those threads officially.
I froze the thread where it happened and screened any further comments. I'm not going to screen comments on all posts, but I will deal with any incidents that arise.
This is the relevant part (for those who don't follow links):
For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress.
It is, according to the wiki, a canonical corollary in that Godwin himself adopted it, and many other people consider this the actual principle of Godwin's Law. (Myself included.)
The original GL was that the likelihood of any conversation including a reference to [genocidal World War II German leadership] approaches 1 (100% likely to happen) as a conversation grows in scope or length.
When someone says "Jews and American Indians have been discriminated against [by people who think like you]." That's perhaps subtle, but you've still implied that someone is a genocidal monster and it will terminate any threads in any well-moderated forum. In strictly moderated forums it would get you booted or banned. In the original USENET the appropriate response is, "Bye." Because there is nowhere the thread can legitimately go from there. It was one of the failings of an unmoderated forum that there was no one who could stop those threads officially.
I froze the thread where it happened and screened any further comments. I'm not going to screen comments on all posts, but I will deal with any incidents that arise.
