Do you consider giving dictionary definitions to be lectures?

I don’t, and didn’t have the feeling anyone did.

When it goes on for 504 words / 3 minutes !!!

Yes! ! !

Not if a word is being used incorrectly or if it is causing a miscommunication. The reference to the dictionary is a point of trying to clarify in most instances. The tricky part is sometimes the dictionary definition doesn’t capture how a word might be currently used in some communities, so the dictionary sometimes is just a part of trying to understand each other.

I think it depends how often it’s done whether it gets to be too much. If the basic meaning is understood then usually I say let it slide, but sometimes it’s so obvious that the person is using a word incorrectly that you just want to help them so they know for themselves. It’s not part of a debate, it’s just a simple correction, and I think that’s ok. That can be done via PM.

No. What an odd question.

If your objection is the way that people argue, that’s one thing. The problem (not just in Fluther but in real life too) is that a lot of people deny that there are facts – incontrovertible, unarguable facts. You can’t even begin to argue issues if you can’t agree on basic facts.

I think the definition / lecture comes in when protagonists try and blur facts for their own purposes and to support their own (faulty) arguments.

Only if the tone of the definition is snide and pedantic and unnecessary. Recently a question about others reactions to a choice was seriously derailed by a totally unnecessary wall-of-text set of corrections that it not actually have anything to do with the nature of the Q itself.

No.

Dictionary definitions are very short, whereas lectures are typically at least somewhat long. So there is a prima facie tension between “being a definition” and “being a lecture.” That said, people often claim to be giving definitions when they are not. And even when people do give actual definitions, they often use them in ways for which definitions are ill-suited. Definitions have a place in discussions, but their actual usage often goes far beyond their proper usage.