On Saturday, June 11, 2011 04:14:17 AM Stu wrote:
Since this has escalated to giving the guy a thread with his name in
the title; would someone mind linking some of his more prolific
trolling. Any hijacked threads? Common trollish behavior such as
insult a person directly. T
He’s insulted me pretty directly most of the time he’s actually
responded to
me. He’s also made legal threats when people point out his trollish
behavior.
I might tolerate these if he brought anything useful to the discussion,
but
with him, it isn’t a discussion. He’ll blatantly ignore or strawman
anything
he doesn’t like, which means unless you present him with precisely
what he’s
looking for (and he’s usually looking for things which are at best
nonsensical
and usually very bad ideas), don’t expect him to read or understand your
post.
He definitely has an abrasive way of expressing himself but far be it
for me to judge him based on his lack of socialization.
It’s not just a lack of socialization, it’s a complete unwillingness to
learn.
That is, an unwillingness to learn much about Ruby (beyond his latest
“BARRIER”), or anything about basic etiquette. Indeed, these are exactly
the
sort of things which he’ll ignore as “offtopic”.
I wouldn’t judge someone for, say, top-posting, like you did here. But
if I
pointed out that you really shouldn’t top-post, and you should quote the
relevant parts rather than the entire email, I would hope you wouldn’t
respond
with “Quit being so unprofessional! It’s my right to top-post! Anyone
should
be able to see in five minutes that top-posting is correct! If you tell
me
again, I’ll sue!”
And that’s toned down a bit from what we usually get from Ilias. Oh, I’m
sorry, not “sue”, but “Here’s a link to defamation laws, and I’ll be
forced to
‘take action’ if you know what I mean, wink wink, nod nod.”
Telling people not to respond to someone sounds like some sort of
elitist click or beginning of an association fallacy. It also proves a
lack of diplomacy, tolerance, and empathy from those imposing such a
ridiculous crusade.
It’s pragmatic, and it’s based on his actions, not association.
I actually somewhat agree with you in that I’m likely to continue to
respond
as I have the time. After all, every response is an opportunity for
Ilias to
grow up.
But he’s far from harmless. We’re spending our time and energy dealing
with
him, instead of people who actually have real problems and are willing
to work
with us to solve them.
If he showed the slightest willingness to learn, if he “had time” to
work with
us instead of against us, then replying to him would make sense, because
he
would actually improve with each exchange. There’s no reason that, even
at
this point, he can’t become a respected member of the community, someone
who
actually does make a positive contribution.
But he’s not interested in that.
Think about the community proverb: Matz is nice, so we are nice.
From my observations this entails these idioms:
Matz does not alienate llias, So neither should I
Matz practices tolerance, So shall I
Matz is diplomatic, So am I
Here’s what Matz had to say:
http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/1893190#1004250
Perhaps that is diplomatic, tolerant, and not alienating. If so, sure,
I’d
love to see more responses like that – but not as much as I wish people
like
Matz didn’t have to waste their time with people like Ilias.
In any case, it certainly didn’t seem nice, nor does Ilias deserve nice
at
this point. He’s lucky people are still willing to tolerate him.
