Frank W. Zammetti wrote:
On 4/27/06, Patrick Lightbody <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dear trolls,
Please go. Or at least try to form your rambling in to some sort of
actionable suggestion. But don't just bitch for the sake of knowing
that people are reading, because...
Dear everyone else,
Please stop reading or replying to the trolls. Seriously. You guys
are just as bad for feeding the trolls. Ignoring them is the fastest
way to make them go away. I have not and will not entertain them with
any sort of response. I suggest you do the same.
I wouldn't have a problem with this except for one thought that crossed
my mind as I read it: one person's troll is another's crusader. I'm
sure the King of England viewed the first Continental Congress as a
bunch of trolls before the revolution happened :)
I would hope everyone around here is mature and professional enough to
withstand criticism and not reject out-of-hand those ideas that do not
immediately jive with your own.
You *always* have the choice whether to read someone's posts or not. You
*always* have the choice whether to reply or not. Filters are easy to
set up, or it only takes a fraction of a second to delete someones'
posts (or an entire thread if it doesn't interest you). There are many
times where I simply ignore some topic, or some person, when I don't
wish to be bothered. But I *never* want to be in a situation where
someone can't say what they want freely. That would be far, far worse
than any "troll" ever could be IMO.
Of course, there is a difference between polite discourse and trolling.
I think we all know who the real trolls are and I think the term has
been leveled a little heavy-handed lately. I think the bottom line is
that if someone doesn't use the product, doesn't like the product,
doesn't like any of the people who work on the product, frequently finds
themselves always disagreeing with everyone else on the list then maybe
it is time for them to find another place to argue.
Also, you bring up a good point because those of us who have a person
filtered into dev/null don't even have to read the messages unless
somebody responds. So stop responding! :)
As mentioned earlier, I've been reading these lists for six or seven
years or something and always enjoyed the high signal to noise ratio.
Lately it's been ridiculous.
-Paul
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