Don't feed the troll...

[Antoon Pardon]

Op 01-07-13 16:02, rurpy at yahoo.com schreef:

> You claim "collective experience" is not reliable and dismiss it
> in favor of your own theory, flaming trolls is a better response.
> And your evidence for that?  Nothing (that I've read so far).

You can decide all for yourself on how you want to handle trolls.
But consider the following possibilty. A couple of trolls that
are good in getting each other riled up. The regular members
who mostly have killfiled them. Then who will be burdened most
by the trolls? The newcomers. The regulars may succeed in creating
a coccoon with a welcoming and positive atmosphere, but they
have by doing so blinded themselves to how the group looks like
to outsiders and so have no idea how hostile the group may have
become to newbees.

> Ironically your flame war with Nikos in
>    http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2013-June/650905.html
> provides evidence for the validity of the collective experience you
> dismiss, that engaging in flame wars with trolls simply produces more
> flames, hostility begets hostility.  I, and I think the majority of
> people here, find that very unpleasant.  You have become (as predicted
> by the collective experience you dismiss) as offensive as any troll.

A lot of unfairness stays in the world because people find it unpleasant
to fight it and even to observe fighting it.

-- 
Antoon Pardon