Why announce a killfile? (was Re: What's better about Ruby than Python?)

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Cliff Wells wrote:
>
> For instance, do you really think publicly announcing that someone is
> in your killfile hurts their feelings or somehow vindicates you?
> That's rather pathetic, but makes sense given the source.  I'd
> venture that mentality is most common at the pre-teen level of social
> interaction.

You and I have different social theories.  My social theory is, people are
very stubborn.  Nobody will engage in Right behavior the minute you tell
them to.  But if I killfile people, and tell them why (i.e. "Because you are
a Troll Hunter, and such people are useless."), then someday they may wake
up and figure it out.  It may be 6 months from now, it may be 2 years from
now.  The point is to have a cumulative effect on people's newsgroup
behavior.

It also starts to sink in when people realize they've been killfiled for
years.  People eventually wake up and mellow out.

Cliff, you aren't in my killfile.  I don't have much problem with what you
wrote about me, because you wrote it tentatively, even if you strongly
suspected you'd reach certain conclusions.  The point is to examine one's
perceptions, one's role, before running off and screaming, "So and so's a
troll!"  There may be other explanations.  Generally, it is broadening to
put yourself in someone else's shoes.

-- 
Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.