Ad hominem attacks are when you imply that someone's argument is invalid because of their background. That's what makes it a fallacy -- the validity of someone

Ad hominem attacks are when you imply that someone's argument is invalid because of their background. That's what makes it a fallacy -- the validity of someone's argument is completely unrelated to their personal qualities. http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html http://plover.net/~bonds/adhominem.html In contrast, when someone offers an anecdote about their experiences, or in general offers their subjective judgement, then knowing something about them is damn important! For instance, if I knew MOC was a compulsive liar, that would certainly be relevant. Likewise, if MOC was in general an optimist who was loath to ever say anything negative, that would lend extra weight to their comments on grad school.