Re: Same old...

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Guy Lavoie" <guy@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

>  I  see that the same group of people throwing around the same
> old insults at each other are still making it as unpleasant as it was
>  last year.

Yes, Guy, you're quite right. I'm afraid that CHA is a much less friendly
place than it used to be.  The sad part is that it's primarily due to the
antics of just *ONE* particularly paranoid and probably psychotic poster who
believes that he's on a sacred crusade.  The sad part is, as Bruce R noted,
GM doesn't realize he seems to be acting out some deeply homoerotic crush on
another man.  For a long time, I was in total agreement with your philosophy
that twit filtering such a person was the only way to go on Usenet.  These
people thrive on attention.  Because of that, in most cases, I still believe
that filtering is the proper solution; that is until this group became
infected with its resident harpy.

> Although some people seem to be making honest appeals to
> reason for it to stop,

At some point people have to re-state the obvious and tell creeps that they
are creepy and to go away.  The problem with ignoring malcontents is that
some fools believe that if you don't challenge an assertion that the sky is
green, then it really must be green.  Ignoring these hard-core haters simply
does not work because they've adjusted their wacky world view to believe
that silence is actually agreement with their position.

> they must also realize that the type of bickering that keeps
> going is precisely the type that looks for an audience

You've accurately identified the conundrum.  What we need to do now is to
accurately identify the solution.  What *does* a group do when "DO NOT FEED
THE TROLLS" doesn't seem to have any effect on the mountains of manure one
misanthropic man insists on shoveling into the group?  Do we just let the
heathen rage until they've run out of rants?  How many people do we allow
him to drive off before anything is done about it?  Waiting out a malicious
person bent on destruction of the group doesn't seem to be as credible a
strategy as it once did.

The problem I see with the "ignore him" approach is that newbies, which
every group needs to stay healthy and vital, are the ones most exposed to
the caustic drivel.  They, like you, take one look around at the juvenile
name-calling and skiddadle.

> and as I said last year, I'm not willing to be that audience.

I'm sorry, Guy, but that seems to be like you're willing to give into the
terrorists.  I just can't believe that's a good solution.  I'm hoping that
we can figure out how to get the PROBLEM to leave, not the valuable posters
like you.  You've got great problem solving skills, at least based on what
you've written about Ocelots, etc. Why not apply those skills to this group
as if GM's rants were merely a technical transmission issue, to be dealt
with as dispassionately as if he were a leaky capacitor or an intermittent
contact?

I'm just afraid that by telling us you're unwilling to stay you're actually
making the situation worse by empowering people like GM.  Your actions tell
him that you're willing to change YOUR behavior to suit HIM.  That's never a
good idea when dealing with terrorists, and that's exactly what we have
here:  Terrorism.

GM WANTS people to modify their behavior because of his actions.  This forum
is probably the only place in the world where he can feel like he is "in
control" of something.  He hopes to get people to do what he wants them to
do under threat of posting yet more vile and inane garbage.  How will your
leaving for another year (thereby tacitly acknowledging that he was powerful
enough to cause you to leave) help out CHA?

> I guess I'll wait yet another year and check back in to see
> if it goes away by then. In the meantime, back to the forums...

Don't you feel badly that the creepy, antisocial behavior of a very few
people (actually only one) has driven you away from a place where you once
were daily readers and a vibrant contributor?  That's how I feel and why I
am determined to speak up.  In fact, I believe the behavior that we witness
here from GM is very, very close to criminal. With many of the states
passing cyberstalking laws, eventually posters like GM will be thrown in
jail.  Until that happens, we have to work out our own solution.

Guy, you're obviously a problem solver, at least based on your posts I've
read in Google.  Do you really believe the best way to deal with this
"noise" problem to "wait it out?"  Would you "wait out" an X-10 transmission
problem?  Probably not.  You'd try to figure out what it took to end the
transmission interference.

The CHA situation's not much different.  We've got a noisemaker on line
that's bringing down the functionality of the entire group.  Please put your
engineering hat on and help us figure out how to solve the problem!  It's
trite, but true:  It is better to light a single candle than to curse the
darkness.

--
Bobby G.