On the one hand, if the button were a node, it would be considered a troll/flame/counter to the spirit of the site, and probably reaped. It antagonizes a monk - regardless of who it is - while adding nothing to the site.

On the other hand, do we want to start examining each other's home nodes for 'acceptable content'? Personally, I'd rather not.

My solution would be to flame the crap out of diotalevi (in CB or in my home node) for poking fun at other monks Whether or not he thinks those monks deserve it is beside the point. No one granted him judicial powers (or if they did, he's abusing them, because he's obviously not impartial).

BECAUSE... I was taught that 'he did it first' wasn't a good enough excuse for bugging my brother/classmates/etc. To me, diotalevi is being a troll, but as long as whatever rules are applied consistently, I'm happy.

So if I can put

diotalevi is a big troll!

I have gone back and read a lot of Wassercrats' older nodes. I'm still reading. At least two years ago, he was a programming neophyte, knew just enough to be dangerous, and had some posting habits that drove some people nuts.

One thing he's really good at, though, is making it obvious just how biased and troll-able several people on PM allow themselves to be. He pushes people's buttons sometimes, gets his nodes downvoted, no big surprise.

But one thing I've noticed: Many monks here have pretty big 'buttons' with hair triggers. Say something they don't like, and BAM! All your XP are belong to us! Furthermore, the downvoting process itself then removes the recipient's ability to respond in kind. Get a couple of monks pissed and it becomes a mob rule. Never mind that those monks are themselves now acting like big ol' flaming jerks.

Put another way, if flaming and trolling is so bad, why do some many people flame Wassercrats instead of just downvoting his nodes?

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Get rid of the button, diotalevi. It's presence makes you the jerk.

--J