is laziness a programer's virtue?

[Markus E Leypold]

Ingo Menger <quetzalcotl at consultant.com> writes:

> On 16 Apr., 23:01, "Xah Lee" <x... at xahlee.org> wrote:
>
>> If your article is relevant to X, Y, and Z,
>> please cross post it.
>
> Yeah right, and if it is not, don't post it at all. Your articles are
> nothing but a bunch of unfounded allegations, moralism and your
> personal notion of what alledgedly "hurts society". As such, they have
> no relevance at all in technical news groups.

But we already had of topic discussions in some of those groups
(meandering into the non technical) that weren't stomped upon by the
group's subscribers. The difference in my eyes is, that Xah is a
troll. What makes Xah a troll is neither off-topic posts nor being
incoherent -- its the attitude. He's broadcasting his drivel to a
number of groups not with the intention to discuss (he hardly ever
answers to answers to his posts), but solely with the intention to
inform the world at large about his own magnificient thoughts. As also
evidenced by reposting some of his stuff (as if he had a fan community
or as if it were a FAQ) or posting stuff dated from 2002.

Trying to correct Xah's behaviour is probably impossible. People who
publish pictures of themselves as he does on the WWW probably don't
have any sense of embarrasment left -- and I consider that a necessary
part in the feedback loop which makes people change: "Look what you
did! Do you really want to look like a dolt in public?" "Umpf. No. God
that was embarrasing" <goes away with the resolution not to get into
such a situation again>.

But that won't happen to Xah.

Regards -- Markus