Time lags are inherent in the system. Some people take longer to get posts than others. When you see a new post which says things you've already responded to, therefore, consider the possibility that the poster has just received an old post of yours. In fact, it is possible that some users may see and respond to a response to a post before ever seeing the original post. This can on occasion result in some bizarre misunderstandings and quotations out of context.
Speech debates rely as much on style and poise as on substance of one's arguments.
On USEnet, however, posters have all the time in the world to think and respond. Over this medium, it is impossible to hide behind impressive-sounding rhetoric. The ToC is the Holy Grail of the origins debate - everyone talks about it, but no one's ever seen it. If you argue against evolution, or imply in any way that creationism is scientific, then you can count on being asked to supply a theory. A scientific theory must have predictive value, must be internally consistent, must be falsifiable, and must explain at least those phenomena explained by the currently dominant theory.