I think that needed to be said and thanks for putting it so well Rachel, it’s almost impossible to disagree with such a sensible position. Ad hominem attacks in particular only make someone look stupid because an intelligent response should at least have a specific criticism if not a counter argument.

There has been a lot of talk about responsible criticism and what the right channels for that are but I think we should keep in mind that authors have certain responsibilities too. If you are writing something that is innovative, controversial or just out-there (or might be any of these things to different people) then you have to expect the response to contain some contrary views and criticism. If you are writing such an article then I think you also have some responsibility to readers to preempt those views by explaining your thought process, your influences or where you believe your position is better than the alternatives. If you don’t take time to do this then sometimes you views can appear bizzare, arrogant or unduly dismissive and that’s not a very good place to start a conversation.

If there is a lesson here I think that’s it’s to consider what we publish, whether it’s asking a friend to read over an article or just taking a few seconds to consider if a tweet is something you really want to share publicly. The web is a wonderful and exciting medium but it’s made sharing our ideas so easy that sometimes we forget to think first.