Let's take the hypothetical a step further.
Suppose Neo chimes in and says "Poet, I agree with you totally."
Now, I suppose I say: "I think nuking the Middle East is extreme."
Is that now responding to Poet, or to Neo, or to both?
Suppose I say "Neo, I disagree with you. Nuking the Middle East is extreme." Since your post simply referred to Poet's, is my post to you also referring to Poet?
You can see the permutations and combinations here, where reasonable minds can differ. What I am trying to avoid is having to examine every post I might want to make on an issue that Poet has participated in and have to think each post through to see whether it does or doesn't pass muster--and pass muster by several people with differing opinions. That's not an environment that interests me, and I don't think is one that would appeal to many people. (And, if the ultimate deal is reciprocal with JLA, let's keep in mind that he's constrained by the same limits on his posts about subjects I'm posting on. How long do you think he will be able to keep it up? If Poet, JLA, and I are all posting on a thread and all of have to worry about whether anything we say can be traced too closely to a post of one of the others, things are going to be mighty weird. And the probability of somebody complaining that the "deal" was violated becomes virtually inevitable.) |
