In this thread about creative types dissing their fans, one poster commented on negative fan reaction to certain omissions in Peter Jackson’s LotR films. Other posters diagree with the negative reaction.
From there, the thread continues on various and sundry subjects, until:
He then goes on to mention RikWriter’s and Equipoise’s posts quoted above in Official Mod Warnings, and mentions:
Now, I don’t blame Dex for this. If I were a mod called into a trainwreck in the making where it was claimed that posters were directly insulting each other, on a very quick perusal to avert disaster, I might zero in on those two posts as well, as the presumed insults.
Trouble is, the posts in question are insulting the authors of a book, not a poster. Seems as though someone decided “If you insult the cultural artifacts I love, you insult me!” Nothing posters actually directed at each other in that thread could be counted as more than gentle ribbing.
Someone hates what you love with a passion and derides it mercilessly? Grow some thicker skin, people!
Some of those CS threads “Favourite/Least Favourite” threads do have a habit of plunging flaming into the hillside, when Poster X decides that Poster Y’s disdain of Author B is tantamount to heresy, the taunting escalates, and someone ends up banned: there was a particularly stupid one the other day when someone drunkenly posted about how awesome Green Day were, was teased about it, and then went off the deep end when someone dared to make a light-hearted derogatory comment about them. I don’t blame Dex in the least for nipping it in the bud.
I still can’t fathom that “taking it personally” mentality, though: I like Deep Purple and Robert B. Parker novels, for example, but I’m happy to admit that they have their flaws and aren’t to everyone’s taste: I’m secure enough in my opinions not to care if someone doesn’t like 70’s hard rock and formulaic detective novels - if you don’t like 'em, that’s fine by me. It’s hardly worth fighting over.