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Obviously tone of voice and much other nuance does not come across on a message board, so often people can react unexpectedly to a post or interpret it differently than intended. Obviously nobody wants personal attacks on a message board, where you should really be giving your opinions and thoughts, not attacking other people's or attacking those people.

So I have an example, and I'm curious if you would consider this to be a personal attack. This is somewhat edited to obscure the topic of the conversation, to keep from going off on that tangent. Obviously there was a lot that came before this, and some vigorous debate, but here's the relevant portion:

Person A (on why he thinks the thread should be locked): Its 11 pages of the same circular reasoning, juvenile hypothetical questions that have nothing to do with the topic (see above), ignoring of facts, and hilarious strawmen. It makes the forum look bad. I don't know how many posts were dedicate to paranoid conspiracy theories about *** and ***, but if I were a new *** interested person I'd run away as quickly as possible.

Person B: No one is making you participate here, Person A. No point coming in here and getting angry about what's here. I think we will be able to get over the loss of your contributions.

Would you consider what person B said to be a personal attack?

Nope.

I would consider this topic as being better served by a PM to a mod though.

 d-usa wrote:
I would consider this topic as being better served by a PM to a mod though.

Probably

also no

in no way is that a personal attack. more like a passive aggressive jab at the comment.

Mild-to-moderate sass-blasting at best.

That doesn't amount to a personal attack, it's barely rude.

That was hardly worth the effort for me to read, let alone you to write out. It isn't a personal attack and something very trivial. Just keep calm and carry on! No fuss needed.

I should point out that this was on a totally different forum, which of course has different rules. So aside from the specific rules in this forum, I was just wondering if that would generally be considered a personal attack. And I was Person B.

Another poster did call it "vicious and demeaning" and "a personal attack". It didn't seem like it to me, but I'm sure it's hard to know when you have let yourself get blinded by the heated discussion and crossed a line. Sounds like I probably didn't, and the other guy is probably over-reacting.

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
I should point out that this was on a totally different forum, which of course has different rules. So aside from the specific rules in this forum, I was just wondering if that would generally be considered a personal attack. And I was Person B.

Another poster did call it "vicious and demeaning" and "a personal attack". It didn't seem like it to me, but I'm sure it's hard to know when you have let yourself get blinded by the heated discussion and crossed a line. Sounds like I probably didn't, and the other guy is probably over-reacting.

Naa its just rude way of answering without actually answering anything

Nope! This is a personal attack-
Arthur Dent?

Arthur Phillip Dent?

You are a jerk, Arthur Dent.

In fact, you are a complete knee biter.

Wait, haven't I done you already?

The Auld Grump

Personal attack is when the attack is solely directed at the person and not the argument, charecter, or post.

They also count slurs. Insults or such as a attack.

I should know what they are and the mods classification. I've reported a few.

Looks like this has been sorted well enough.