Ezekiel,
You're correct. My suggestion is to kill them with kindness. I actually have seen this work recently. There is a certain poster that is very knowledgeable but very argumentative and insultiing with highly respected members here. In this case English may not be his first language which adds to the problem. The short story is that he apppeared to attack a respected members opinion. That member simply replied that he was sorry if he was incorrect rather than escalating it into an argument. Surprisingly, the attacker came back expressing an apology if he came across too harshly. This guy had been criticized repeatedly for his aggressive behavior to no avail but one incident of backing away from an argument did it. In this case we may be on the road to recovery.
Let's just keep things in perspective here too. For every jerk that waits in the wings to pounce on a different opinion there are multiple wonderful people that contribute quietly and with respect. We simply need to ignore the twisted types or be nice to them. Remember, it does take two to fight.
You're correct. My suggestion is to kill them with kindness. I actually have seen this work recently. There is a certain poster that is very knowledgeable but very argumentative and insultiing with highly respected members here. In this case English may not be his first language which adds to the problem. The short story is that he apppeared to attack a respected members opinion. That member simply replied that he was sorry if he was incorrect rather than escalating it into an argument. Surprisingly, the attacker came back expressing an apology if he came across too harshly. This guy had been criticized repeatedly for his aggressive behavior to no avail but one incident of backing away from an argument did it. In this case we may be on the road to recovery.
Let's just keep things in perspective here too. For every jerk that waits in the wings to pounce on a different opinion there are multiple wonderful people that contribute quietly and with respect. We simply need to ignore the twisted types or be nice to them. Remember, it does take two to fight.