"Joy Beeson" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:34:53 +0100, Steve O
wrote:

I'll stick around, but it looks like this loon has more or less
destroyed this newsgroup,

Loons can't destroy newsgroups. It's the idiots who stroke and pet
and encourage the loons -- the idiots who magnify the loon's
disturbance beyond all belief -- who destroy newsgroups.

Stolen from somewhere; provenance lost:


Starguard's Guaranteed Fire Extinguisher

A very wise Fidonet system operator once told me her "magic
formula" for putting out flamewars. I have since posted it
to two newsgroups and seen it praised by their
administrators. And it's so SIMPLE....

Take the premise that chronic flamers have an ego problem.
Consider what result they hope to achieve: to get people
"going", to get a reaction. So! What to do? Follow this
very simple plan:

Ignore them.

If you feel you absolutely MUST answer them, answer them
only ONCE, no matter what else they reply with. (I don't
care if you have to bite your lip, kick your desk, get up
and run around the room...sit on your hands. Deny them the
satisfaction!)

If you DO break down and answer them: refuse to stoop to
their level, no matter what the provocation. (Why should
you allow them to drag you down to their childish level?!)

(I might add that part of the genius of Starguard's Plan is
that answering ONLY ONCE forces you to make a careful,
well-reasoned rebuttal...try to hew to this part of the
formula. She got her inspiration from a rule West Point gave
up because it was TOO effective....)

But most of all: IGNORE them.
That's the worst torture of all to an egotist!

And it WORKS.

It only works if you have a RATIONAL troll. It does not work when you have a
screwball troll like TM. Such a retarded simpleton as TM is easily able to
destroy a small newsgroup by posting hundreds of nonsense messages nonstop.

TM never engages anyone. He is completely self-absorbed. Your formula of
ignoring such idiots does not work in a small newsgroup. It may work in
large newsgroups that have hundreds of everyday posters, but the quality of
even large groups will be negatively impacted.

The only solution to the problem of unmoderated newsgroups is to moderate
them. But such moderated groups are impossibly boring and only jerks and
dorks like you will ever bother with them.

--
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota