Open Source Communication Tricks or How to Avoid Flame Wars

In open source world, communicating with members or community which is almost always carried out by using mailing lists or forums is crucial to a successful usage or development and it requires few simple but fatal skills/tricks. Usually failing to regard them leads to hot insulting debates a.k.a flame wars.

The most notable fact about such communication is that it's offline and the key to have a successful one is to avoid emotions! Below are some hints out of my own experience in real world:

1. Avoid writing words in all capital letters at all as it rises too much emotions about your message. If you need to place emphasis on a word or phrase it's much better to use _ (underscore) or * (asterisk) characters instead.
   
   For example instead of
   This bug CANNOT be fixed.
   write
   This bug _cannot_ be fixed.
   or
   This bug *cannot* be fixed.
   


2. When criticising someone else's work it's better to use phrases like "in my (humble) opinion" or "I think" to show the reader that it's purely your idea. Although we all know that when someone is writing a post/email she's just expressing her own thoughts -unless mentioned explicitly- we tend to forget this point when reading some idea against our work and start to think that the whole world is against us thus switching to defence mode unconsciously.
   
   For example instead of
   The new file you just added does not address issue X. You have to remove/edit it.
   
   write
   IMO, the new file you just added does not address issue X. I'd suggest you remove/edit it.
   
   
3. Talk directly and frankly in technical terms. Avoid using non-technical terms or words which rise emotions as emotions are difficult to comprehend even when you're talking to someone face to face still less through offline messages. Thus, believe me or not, most of the times your emotions are comprehended falsely so you better forget about them and stick to clear technical terms.
   
   For example instead of
   Your code is garbage!
   
   write
   As far as I understand (AFAIU) your code has 2 major flaws which can be exploited ...
   
   
4. In case you find a post/email insulting or offensive your best first choice is to ignore it. Trust me! An offensive post loses weight and offender feels pissed off if she feels that her post doesn't attract attention. If it happens again you may ask a moderator to warn or shoot her off the list/forum.
   


5. Don't use multiple punctuations in your posts; what good would they do while a single punctuation works? Again it rises emotions, so you better avoid it.
   
   For example instead of
   I'm stuck at this bug!!! How to fix it??!!
   
   write
   I'm stuck at this bug. How to fix it?