Online discussion boards, forums, and even comments areas following articles and opinion pieces are a great way to debate issues. You can share and discuss opinions, raise or answer new questions, and see a variety of other viewpoints, all without the pressure of face-to-face confrontation. But a discussion is more beneficial to everyone involved when the participants understand how to get their points across!
Be Civilized
Swearing and personal attacks are generally big no-nos. No one's going to respect you or your opinion if you aren't respectful of others. Even if the discussion gets a little heated, take your time and state your views calmly and tactfully. After all, you want people to agree with you, right? So your best bet is to sound reasonable. Plus it's more satisfying in the end to shred someone's argument calmly and rationally than to simply fly into a rage and let a good discussion degenerate into insults and fodder for comments like “That's the trouble with [insert political/racial/social group here.]
Beware of Sarcasm
Sarcastic comments are fun. Sometimes they're even a good way to make a point. Unfortunately, sarcasm is normally indicated by tone of voice, which can make it hard to pick up over the Internet, and as an added bonus, many sarcastic statements can be offensive if taken the wrong way. When talking to people you don't know personally or well, be on the safe side and keep it serious, or else find a way to make it very obvious that you're just kidding-like saying so. Similarly, if another discussion participant makes a particularly outrageous or offensive statement, look for signs that it might have been tongue-in-cheek.
Of course, it's entirely possible that it wasn't, but it's worth making sure.
Use Correct Spelling and Grammar
For some reason a lot of people balk at this, which says a lot about how lazy we as a people are. Chatspeak and other shortcuts (like not capitalizing) are fine for chatrooms and IMs. But when you're trying to have a serious conversation about something important-especially via a medium such as a discussion board, where your response doesn't have to be immediate-go the extra inch and use real English. Shortened words, acronyms, lack of punctuation or capital letters, and slang are all annoying to read and, quite frankly, they make you seem less intelligent. It's not fair, but it's true. And again, no one will respect you if you sound like an eighth grader-even if you are.
Back Yourself Up
No, really. That's a cardinal rule of debate. If you can't support your argument, you don't have an argument. And remember, if you're going to cite studies or statistics or anything of that nature, ideally you should have more than one example from (relatively) unbiased sources. Also, examples are useful in making a point or explaining a concept, but they don't necessarily count as support on their own. Think of the old “exception makes the rule” thing. Even if you've got a great example, someone else might have one that shows the opposite. So have some real, in-depth information about your statements.
By a similar token, if someone points out an unsupported claim and you can't back it up, don't just pretend they didn't call you out. Odds are other people noticed, too. Either find some support or concede the point.
Don't Jump To Conclusions
Or, Read Carefully. Before leaping to counter something someone else said, make sure you understand WHAT they said. It sounds like a no-brainer, but misinterpretations happen more often than you'd think. Read their comments over again to make sure you didn't miss anything, and if you're not entirely sure what they meant by something, it's ok to ask. In fact, it's a lot more ok than making an assumption that turns out to be wrong.
Also: don't put words in anyone's mouth. Attempting to prove someone wrong by twisting their argument around makes you, not them, look like the jerk.
