Quote Originally Posted by cidbahamut View Post
The thing is, respect needs to first be earned and can easily be forfeited if you behave poorly.
I definitely agree that respect can be forfeited, and when it is, its up to the reader if they are going to stoop to the same level and engage in a war or just surround themselves with better company. But I don't feel respect should first be earned in order to be spoken to politely in an online forum. I feel that we should all be starting from a point of respect when we speak to one another to begin with. I don't know how you would go about earning respect online if you don't start by respecting eachother in the first place. We don't know anything about eachother. I post all of this assuming the goal is to actually change someone's mind about an issue such as the haste debate.