Re: A modest request of Merlyn

[revdiablo]

delirium,

I do not have any substantive reply to your node, but the following makes me slightly nervous:

I enjoy heated arguments, and I think people screaming at each other in their posts over trifles is high comedy. That's what make Slashdot and Fark fun

To me, this makes you sound suspiciously like a troll. Or at least a person exhibiting troll-like behavior. Your behavior in this thread certainly reinforces that, in my mind.

Heated arguments on Slashdot and Fark may be fun for you, but for me (and others I know), they are anything but. In the very least, I think we can agree that certain communities tend to be overrun by such, and I can't imagine that's a good thing. I hope your love of argument is tempered by a desire to maintain a useful community.

[delirium]

Please let me know what behavior of mine in this thread seems troll-like. I attempted to make very clear that I was not offended by anything said to me, and that a disclaimer linked to in a signature was untruthful and should be removed.

If you would like to search through some of my other posts, you will see that I am a regular contributor to this community, that I am not a troublemaker, and that I attempt to help people with the perl problems they present here.

Here are a few examples:

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A number of people are disagreeing with me in this thread. This does not make me a troll. This area of the site is for non-perl problems, and topics like this frequently come up here.

I imagine some members here are assuming that I am trying to be a troll because the object of this post is a valued community member. I value Merlyn as much as the next member, just look at my profile.

[revdiablo]

Please let me know what behavior of mine in this thread seems troll-like.

These are the behaviors I consider troll-like:

• You took a relatively obscure post of yours (which merlyn failed to reply to) and elevated it to a whole top-level node.
• You have insistently replied to many nodes in this thread. Granted, you started it to engage in a discussion, but there is a point where you should just let the comments stand (e.g. posting 8 levels deep seems a bit excessive to dwell on one minor point).
• In your own words, you described your enjoyment of "heated discussions."

If you would like to search through some of my other posts, you will see that I am a regular contributor to this community

This is why I hesitated to call you an outright troll, and added the caveat that it might just be "troll-like behavior." I have not reviewed your entire post history, and am not prepared to completely write you off. I hope my post wasn't read in that way.

I imagine some members here are assuming that I am trying to be a troll because the object of this post is a valued community member.

Please do not consider me in that group. As I stated, my post had no substantive reply. I do not think merlyn is particularly mean-spirited, but I'm not in any position to defend or condemn his behavior. I was simply commenting on yours.

[jdporter]

Not at all. See Jargon File: Troll (and also Flame Warriors: Troller just for fun). delirium has shown absolutely no trollish behavior, at least in this thread.

[jryan]

I agree with you. Trolling Slashdot-ers are pretty low, but a Farker? Might as well glue a "I am the white trash of the Internet" bumpersticker to your forehead. Hell, probably should staple it.

[delirium]

One of the two of us here is trolling, and it's not me. Not only is your comment out of line and not contributing to this dicussion in the least, neither glue nor staples would be needed:

Bumper stickers are self-adhesive.

[jryan]

Discussion? What discussion? Talk about missing the point. The entire essense of this thread was nothing but a bunch of hypocritical whining. Anyone who likes to flame on Fark and Slashdot has thick enough skin where being called a "fool" shouldn't even register. I guess that you think that this form of posturing is a way to become popular here, but frankly, its annoying as hell.

Its this kind of bullshit (the kind of bullshit where people are more concerned about this site or their reputations on this site rather than the content of this site) that make people like Abigail leave. Its this kind of bullshit that make many of the heavy-hitters in the perl community avoid this site like the plauge. You posted some code that you didn't think through/test thoroughly, and you were called out on it. Its happened to most of us here. Its happened to me several times. So, you got offended by the way you were called out on it? Get mad at at the person all you want, its your right. Send them an angry email or a few angry /msgs. But, there sure as hell isn't any reason to post a root node about it. Get over yourself. FYAD.