OK, I succumbed in a moment (or two or three) of weakness and joined the crowd during the flamefest. I'll work on being more genteel :)
I'm not really sure thats necessary, I've never seen a flame fest start over a simple question, many (including me) were offended by the users obvious troll. (Ok, maybe a few flame fests *have* started, but in response to a valid question. That jerks message was not a question, but an attack.)
Now then, I believe the gentleman from Calgary wasn't trolling to start trouble. I believe he got his monthly reminder, probably for the first time, and panicked. It probably wasn't the best or brightest reaction he's had in a while, but I'd bet my slices of pizza at the next meeting that we've all had a similar reaction at one time or other.
I have to disagree, he went out of his way to insult the list maintainers, in all caps, and then continued his troll with a few extra messages just for good measure.
Now, back to the poking. We didn't give our acquaintance from Calgary a poke. We singed his back side and slammed the door on it for good measure. Argue it how you like, the evidence is on the list archives, and we flamed him. Admittedly, from a RTFM POV, his question looked ridiculously stupid, and we ridiculed him.
Lets see, here are some of the questions from his message, lets try to find something that is NOT a troll:
WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING? -- Nope, thats not it...
WHERE DO YOU KEEP YOUR BRAINS ANYWAY? -- Definitely not it...
Who in Hell needs Microsoft's security holes when we have lists that do
this? -- I could be mistaken, but this is also a *statement* intended to be insulting.
Jon is right. Those of us who flamed should be ashamed...and should do better.
I dont recall anyone who joined in on the "Canadian Beating" flaming people in the past for actual questions. Maybe a little poke to get the user thinking, but never with a particularly sharp object. The only thing I'm ashamed of is that I let that moron get to me.
I dont think you or anyone else should be ashamed, but feel free to flame me if you dont. ;)
$.02
--mike
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