[xi_hyperon]

I am talking about KellyHogan. The guy took a perfectly valid and constructive discussion and turned it into a 9 page soapbox episode. Anyone who's been at MacNN for longer than a week sees this is a pattern he will not change, as he preaches in the Lounge, OS X, and other forums as well. It's sad because such trolling will only drive people away in the end.

There is a line between voicing an opinion/reasoning with sound arguments- and trolling. KH only knows the latter. When someone closes their ears and insults everyone who disagrees, it stops being enjoyable and worthwhile, and becomes a flamewar. Gorgonzola, I appreciate your early effort in that thread to stop the downward spiral, as you could see where it was going. However it's not sufficient if KH is involved.

I would like to know if the admins are going to try to calm the guy down - so that the rest of us can enjoy a topic instead watching it go down the toilet.

As long as this is allowed, I'm not going to participate further in any thread he becomes a part of, because at that point there is no longer any real discussion, which the whole point in the first place. Flamewars suck, period, and wherever KH is, that's what we get.

Admins?

[edited for grammar as usual]

[ 05-16-2002: Message edited by: xi_hyperon ]

[TNproud2b]

Everyone that replies is a willing participant in the discussion.

[xi_hyperon]

Everyone *who* replies is a willing participant in the discussion, only if it is a true discussion. When it becomes a free-for-all flame and insult fest, the thread is no longer a discussion. When someone lays down an argument as law, belittling everyone who disagrees it is no longer a discussion and the whole affair becomes cheapened. Go read the thread instead of trying to be clever.

[Lerkfish]

Unfortunately I'm not an objective commentator on this topic, as early on KH infuriated me to the point of flames, so anything I say will seem as a personal thing...so let me just this:

Do people sidetrack threads into intentional or unintentional flame wars? absolutely. But what is the solution? If you reply to them directly they only increases the heat or allows them to play the victim. In the lounge, this is somewhat expected, but in other fora its a pain.

We all have to option to completely ignore someone...yes its a royal pain to do so when the s/n ratio gets completely whacked...but many of these types of people crave attention, any attention, sometimes preferably negative attention. The only sure way to stop them is to ignore them altogether, but that's inherently difficult when they are so outrageously incendiary.

What I do now is simply respond to their bizarre assertions and move on. I try not to flame them back, but I'm only human.

On the good side, reading the thread you linked to, at least one function KH served by being so unredeemably obtuse is he elicited refutations of such detail from people who actually knew something that I learned a great deal I did not know before reading it.

[philzilla]

i don't really watch the Kelly Hogan Show. i can turn on the tv and watch Nickolodean, if i want that level of behaviour. there's other people that bring threads to a halt too, by resorting to name-calling and similar things.

i get the idea the admins here have a list of names and a list of solutions that they're trying to bring to order. i'll sign anything they need me to

[ 05-16-2002: Message edited by: philzilla ]