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ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Could it be if we all used offsite references to explain our thoughts, we could in fact lose the ability to explain ourselves ?

Could it be also that there is a hint of laziness in gathering words from other people's minds to speak on behalf of us ?

I hate to see the day when it may come that from post to post within a thread, it is just a mass of links to other places, other people, and other people's thoughts, not the person posting that link.

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ORIGINAL: Aneirin

What is wrong with oppinions though, surely when someone asks a question, they are seeking the oppinions of others, not oppinions in general, on the world wide web. If someone sought the oppinion of the world wide web, they would search the web, not ask questions here.

I post here, to stimulate conversation, I ask questions here, because from experience, I have found people here, those that engage on the forums, largely they appear to be of a more flexible and higher level of understanding than other forums I regularly visit. So here, I spend the majority of my web time, rather than other places, and this is the only forum where I have stayed in my four years of internet access. Other forums I have joined, well, most have faded away, here, I like it here, and like most of you people, most of the time.

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Mostly I think it has to be taken on a case by case basis, and around here, sometimes with a grain of salt.

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ORIGINAL: Aszhrae

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Mostly I think it has to be taken on a case by case basis, and around here, sometimes with a grain of salt.

Or a pound of sugar. Much more effective some times.

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ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Could it be if we all used offsite references to explain our thoughts, we could in fact lose the ability to explain ourselves ?

Could it be also that there is a hint of laziness in gathering words from other people's minds to speak on behalf of us ?

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I agree with Orion!!
There is a big difference between a source such as "The Washington Post",
and sites like Joe'sBullshitblog.com.

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ORIGINAL: Aneirin

I come across this , 'problem' at college where if I am writing an essay or a report, the tutors expect to see links and references to what I have written. I have to argue at this, because I see the point of research is to seek information and form my own oppinion from that information. The tutors knowing their subject, should know if I am talking crap or not, not have to follow my trail to see where I get my information from. I argue that if I were to just read every published article and take that as is, there will be no further thought on the matter, we will learn to take others words, published words as the word on the subject. One thing I have been told by a college dedicated to stimulating creativity, is that everything has already been done, there are no new ideas, my answer, is if that is so, we may as a species may just give up now, for we need not try to discover more about ourselves and our world, because as you say, it has all been done before. I believe the human race is capable of more and more as it evolves in certain directions, and that modern media could be seen as limiting creativity in certain directions.

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ORIGINAL: Aneirin
Often I have seen posted,  people ask to see a link to material before they will take anyone's point of view, and often if it is the poster's own experience, they are ignored or thought to be lying unless they can provide back up via a link, why?