My friend got called 'stinky' by another boy, so I said that he was a 'poop face' and then he said "I'm going to kill you" and two days later I was cornered by his gang and got beaten up.
I remembered this because there was a schoolyard brawl between several people who should know better on twitter a couple of nights ago. Tim Atkin called Neal Martin stinky, and then a blogger called Richard Bray (who is a friend) called Tim a poop face and then Tim comes back and beats up Richard.
Everyone makes credible arguments to support their opinions, but like the discussion of whether a wine tastes good or not, you are all right but there is no need to make it personal. Calling people names or commenting about the fact that they are not paid to write about wine is no difference to being called a poop face. Both Richard and Tim spoke from positions of ignorance - Tim was right to say Richard didn't know some key points about how he goes about the funding of his trips, but Tim, you aren't aware that Richard has travelled to wine regions, spent the past five years working in a winery during harvest time and has an exceptionally trained and talented palate - qualifying him to speak about wine just as much as you or I - as well as having a Joe Pesci-esque talent to use less savoury words as punctuation. The only person who got out of this untarnished was Martin, who, like my schoolfriend, accepted that someone called him a name and shut up.
Have discussion, yes, but don't resort to silly schoolboy name calling as it undermines all of your skill, talent and reputations.
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