One aspect of online communication that does lead to poor debate is the art of the picky quote - I'm sure we all do it: scan a post, leap onto a particular comment and then extrapolate a whole bunch of unintended meaning from some minor throwaway point.
The chances are little thought went into that individual comment, even if the post as a whole was an attempt at some point.
The cycle repeats, and on each iteration, the protagonists feel compelled to defend some point that was perhaps in context correct, but by the time it has been extruded though partial quotation after partial quotation, the original point is lost.
Points are always lost for saying "that is not what I meant". You are never allowed to admit that all your internet posts are dashed off without thought (unless you are FT2 where every nuance was apparently carefully honed into senselessness).
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