Letters to the Editor
dan8822
Published Letters: 2
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Other half of the story
[Read the article: Mind your manners online]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gary, while it is well known that people are far less polite in online discussions than, say, in person, I think you are missing the real story here.
Online blogs and discussions are a threat to organizations that like to have control over the message, as well as an opportunity for organizations to get their message out in an economic fashion.
Think about the issues that have real money behind them. Is global warming real? Is XBox the best game console? Did the mercury based preservative thimesoral cause 800k cases of autism? Does [random industrial chemical] cause cancer? Will hundreds of hours of cell phone use have any long term health impact? Is chemotherapy effective?
Any organization with a financial stake in an issue like the above would consider it money well spent to have their PR firms post comments to blogs and other online forums; it is ridiculously cheap to do so.
Besides plugs and pro or con posts, I'm sure many discussions are being "poisoned" to decrease the signal to noise level, thus smothering civil discussion, as this is even easier.
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Economics
[Read the article: If the first date isn't great, why go out with him again? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think the response by Cary was great! Very fun.
The original question, how to tell the guy, sorry no future, is easy enough to answer: just be upfront. Any normal individual shouldn't suffer permanent harm by being rejected after a single date.
The question: should you give these guys more chances, is the real question, obviously.
It comes down to an economic question: do you have time to go out with the guys who are on the borderline of being "interesting", just in case they really turn out to have potential, or is your time better spent trying out someone new?
This depends on how often new, interesting guys come along, and your view on the odds that a borderline guy might turn out to be good.
Personally, I think you are probably better off rolling the dice with new guys like you're doing rather than spending time with guys you think won't make the cut, although if you have the time there is always a chance you misjudged someone after only one date, because of stress on their part or whatever.
Again, it is an economic decision based on the opportunity costs for each option.