It is abundantly obvious at this point that he is a sad, angry guy. My guess is that he probably has one or several handicaps of some sort which keep him from interacting with the rest of society in any significant way, and has probably caused him to be subjected to some cruelties in his life that have helped shape the personality we see here.
Continued ragging on him, responding to his posts and letting him upset you is precisely what he wants. It gives him a life, after a fashion. Now, if you wanna perform a charitable act and continue to respond to his baiting, go for it, he’ll appreciate it. But if he truly annoys you and you’d like to be as little bothered by him as possible,t he best course of action is to sompletely ignore him. Don’t acknowledge anything he says or does. If he can’t get a reaction, he’ll go away eventually because there’s no payoff.
You’re right, and I appologize for fueling the flame. I was hoping an administrator/moderator would see how much fellow members hate him, and would boot him. Until then, Stoidela is right, we should just forget about him. I’ll do my best.
(Insult removed by moderator)
[Note: This message has been edited by Lynn Bodoni]
Does that mean I shouldn’t respond to his personal attacks OR his spreading of scientific inaccuracies, or just not to the attacks?
I DO have a little trouble letting FATE magazine-type junk be disbursed without criticism, but I will listen to your opinion on the subject.
Well, it’s always up to you what you do about anything, of course.
But since you know that interaction with him stands a veryhigh probability of escalating into a frustrating and pointless exchange of rudeness, why engage at all?
Believe me, Slythe, the very worst thing you could ever do to C#3 is treat him as though he were invisible. Truly invisible.
I thought you might do that, Lynn. Wise choice. For all those getting tired of moderators editing stuff, that one was quite justified. It was a little over the top. I’m sorry.
Slythe, my suggestion would be a carrot and stick approach. Comments on serious topics deserve response; I would not want a post citing how Nostradamus has accurately predicted every significant event of the last 500 years to go unchallenged.
Some of those responses include insult, snide comment, sarcasm, and similar. That’s all OK.
But when the snide comments and insults take on a life of their own, divorced from any topic except ad hominem personal assaults, that’s when it’s gone too far. (Even then, BTW, a certain level of insult-for-its-own-sake is appropriate here in the BBQ Pit, but not in other forums.)
So, I’d say, in facing a troll: (a) if the person posts comments that are pure trolling, ignore them. One response from one member to say “This is crap” – once that’s been said, leave it alone, do not pursue. The silent treatment – that’s what the troller can’t stand. The troller is looking for feedback – negative feedback is better than no feedback at all.
(b) If the person posts comments that have some substance to them, reward with feedback, discussion, etc.
That’s my feelings on the best treatment of trolls. It aint easy to do, but it’s the only thing that works.
CKDH, thank you for the clarification. I think that standing back for now and maybe just an occasional short response WOULD be the best bet. Scientific illiteracy is a hot button of mine, and in the past I’ve gone overboard in response. I’ll try to do better.