My Fellow Achaeans,

Every day myself and a multitude of other Achaeans read the public news.
We read the public news in order to become aware of and attempt to make
sense of the various events that we have not been a part of. Each day
many of us also scoff in disgust at the dribble that people always seem
to think is fit to print. Now I am not talking about poor language or
grammar. Nor am I speaking of shoddy or fallacy ridden logic. I am
speaking of the pure opinion post.

In the pure opinion post the writer gives his or her opinion on a person
or event with no actual reference to and facts about the person or
event. Here is an example of an opinion post.
"Sometimes when you haven't got a clue as to what's going on in a
situation the wisest course of action is to sit back and keep your mouth
shut. When you start making accusations that have no basis in fact and
point out facts that only have a place in your own imagination you tend
to make a fool of yourself in front of the people who actually have a
This is what the post amounts to: Kryvar is a fool because he makes
accusations that have no basis in fact. Specifically what accusations
did Kryvar make that had not basis in fact, when did he make them, for
what reason did he make them, and most importantly what is the source of
your information? Have you personally been there for every one of these
events, do you know someone that was there (is that person reliable), or
is your evidence hearsay? Here is an example, from the same side of the
same argument that is fairly well put together.
"1) the GM of a guild who has decided upon his own that
Darkenwood is dying (Kryvar Danial, public #9898).";
Apparently you are privy to every conversation held;within our guild, I
would applaud your powers of;observation if they were even remotely
close to;accurate (Covenant Stormcrow, public #9907)."
Here Covenant takes a specific piece of evidence, the source is well
know and adds his own commentary in order to discredit Kryvar's
argument. Is his argument convincing because he uses this time honored
device? Yes, it is. I am completely convinced that Kryvar could not
possibly know every thing that goes on in the Sentinels guild. I also
enjoy reading Covenant's posts, even though I rarely agree with them,
because they are structured in a manner that attempts to appeal to the
intellect of the reader.

Yours truly,
Orez Le'dominae

PS I do not understand why anyone feels the need to ask that others do
not respond to their posts. This is also a waste of space as most people
will ignore this request. Just reading the last 1000 posts will prove
that to you.

Penned by my hand on the 14th of Mayan, in the year 309 AF.