Accounting for potential misunderstandings

If something can be misunderstood, it probably will be.
It’s annoying, but try to live with it.

In halakha, you have to take care of other person’s sensitivity. You usually can’t say – I did not mean anything bad, it is he who is too sensitive. Online discussions have several extra challenges:

1) you don’t see the person and he does not see you. This also shows in emails between people who know each other. Usually, it is better to pick up the phone than to continue angry emails

2) you don’t know the person and he does not know you, so you make worst assumptions. This is similar also to books, but

3) this is written quickly and 4) we are not authorities that can claim respect l’hathila so many people do not apply l’tzad schut

general advice – if there is misunderstanding, it is not a big deal, both sides should adjust how theu read/write to make it into exchange of ideas rather than a meaningless flame war. If you are not improving in either writing or reading experience, time for self-review and ask someone else to give you an advice.

Hopefully, you’ll develop an ability to express yourself better and to read with more understanding/

of course i agree that it may be frustrating. i’m not saying u always have to do it, for sure that there’s no halachic obligation–ask your LOR to be sure–but, sometimes things can be confusing. especially on the CR u don’t know who’s responding to what, what side of the political aisle they’re on, everyones looking for controversy. just be clear as u can. its usually not too hard.