I’ve no idea whether he’s a danger to himself or others. But it’s become quite apparent that humoring him doesn’t help. Neither does thoughtful argument, logic or reason. I don’t know if telling him that he needs immediate professional help will be effective. Worth a shot.
Did someone actually do that, or are you playing some kind of high ground game?
Mods, Feel free to lock this silliness.
They don’t think they need help. To the extent to which they recognize the existence of other people, it is themselves who are perfect and others who are weak and stupid.
Are you the op? Checks. No. Then who the fuck are you to request a Pit thread be locked? Covfefe, Feel free to not read or participate.
The subject of the Pitting does, I think, have some real issues, and has blamed his … condition … and having been exposed to philosophy. Maybe these concepts did trigger some anxiety in him. A few of his initial threads still resulted in decent discussion amongst other contributors.
But he really did then just repost the same question over and over again phrased differently in many subsequent threads. If he’s gotten onto any new schtick or demonstrated any ability to actually read and learn from the quality responses he got it happened after I gave up opening his threads anyway. Not sure why others kept engaging.
OP, what sort of intervention would you suggest? We are not his family or real life friends. He has self-identified as having an Asperger label and it may be that his position on the spectrum is such that he really does seriously struggle with abstract concepts, with empathy, and the basic concepts inherent from having a functional theory of mind. And? What should we be doing regarding that?
Ding! Ding! Ding!
And technically, they’re right - the fact that they don’t get along with other people is other peoples’ problem, not theirs. That’s why dealing with them is a social problem, not a psychological one.
In a previous thread, MrDibble stated that M had PM’d him in a way that made it clear he was questioning whether life was worth living given his conclusions.
Machinaforce may be a troll, but I will not take a jerk route.
You can’t post a negative thread about someone in any other forum. There isn’t a thread for “posters who need psychological help.” But there is value in publicly warning people.
I remember reading one of his early threads out of curiousity. I saw the crazy and proceeded to ignore him since. There are people who do not do this?
Whether or not the subject of the thread is a solipsist, I gather he enjoys being the center of attention.
IOW?
Seriously I am not seeing anything jerkish about this OP.
If the OP is correct then the goading him on is being done by those who continue to engage with hi in his threads instead of simply expressing their concern. If really really correct (and I do not think so) and the Pitted poster does present a clear and present danger to himself and others, then we would have some ethical obligation to report such to those who could actually find the real person and evaluate for those risks.
If Machinaforce instead is just a confused person with some … issues … but not of clear and present danger (etc.) then putting out warning buoys is not being a jerk. Stating that someone seems to have mental health issues is being a jerk because they may actually have mental health issues and may be offended? Sure thing Linus.
If he is just a persistent troll, or someone who is just wanting attention for what they think are novel concepts and not really interested in engaging, then a pitting is justified.
What to you seems so jerkish?
A thread to express concern that this person may need help is not mean spirited and might be all we can do to help, if he reads it and takes it to heart. Whether or not the mods want to limit how many of the essentially same threads they let him open is up to them. But if troll, then DNFTT*, and if ill, then poking with a stick by participating in pointless repetitive discussion seems jerkish to me.
*Are we feeding him here?
Everyone’s free to do what they want. I would just hate to see a pile on - but it’s sure not my place to tell others what to do.
The threads - man, they reek of knotted damage.
Cheerfully conceded; “judgmental” was in no way my intention. (Nor was it my intention to pathologize any poster, alive or dead, in any way. I just find the space between the emotional and the social–the space in which PDs manifest–to be deeply fascinating on personal, academic, and professional levels.)
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Why would a true Solipsist seek opinions on a message board? At best he’d be addressing imaginary reflections of imaginary people. That by itself is kinda nutty.
Even a Solipsist gotta eat. 
Yeah, but his phrasing made it pretty clear he was just doing it to troll. Believe me, I’ve seen serious cries for help and suicide attempts before, this was not that. Especially telling is that he stopped PMing as soon as I forwarded his PMs to the mods…
Creepy, tedious, and hypocritical.
He argues, a lot, with things that don’t exist. And he insists on winning those arguments. Seems to invest a lot of effort, thought, and emotion on wrestling us, the phantasms of his solipsistic imaginings.
In other words, a troll with a fairly limited schtick.
I just ignore him. It’s like he doesn’t exist.
Ah!!!
I had not fully understood that.
Argh.
He wants to hunker down in his cycle of damage and drag us all into his existential mosh pit. Got it.
You’re not getting it - there *is *no “cycle of damage”, there’s just performance.