I was on one list that had a member who, while he was only a minor
irritant, seem to infuriate about a half-dozen of the other members. His
every post became the spring that sourced a torrent of abuse. Now, his
original posts were no problem, and some simply filtered him out but the
subsequent flood of vitriolic responses could not be filtered. Further, he
would become aggrieved, with some justification because his abusers refused
to see any merit in his ideas and there was some on occasion. He was at
least interesting and thought provoking. In fact, a couple of members
seemed to see it as their mission in life to scream down his every
utterance.
In other words, he was not the problem. He could be ignored if you so
wished. His respondents had, and caused the problem. I'm not criticising
anyone here. No, really! In the recent argument, I saw considerable merit
in the position of both sides. I saw no merit in the personal abuse. If
someone wishes to be the list-hippy, or the Gordon Gecko of Olydom, so
what. Listen politely, smile and either agree/disagree quietly or walk
away. Those 'sophists' who mischeviously seek arguments for the fun of it
will soon be disappointed.
Exclusion - don't go that route. It's undemocratic at least - at worst it's
a really dreadful thing to do to yourself, as well as the victim.
AndrewF
>Is it possible to block a list member, and their posts from the Olympus
>Digest format?
>
>(It's like a fly buzzing around my ears, bothering me, keeping me up at
>night, but I'm just a little too slow to get him with a fly swatter.)
>
>Tom S., have you figured out how to block him out?\
>
>Buzzzz, buzzz, buzzzzzz, buzzzzzz. Hey, is that initials on it's back? Do
>they say "L.H.?"
>
>Buzzzz, buzzzz, buzzz.
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
>
>
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