The last gasp of internet debate

I wrote earlier this week that I was going to try and give up internet debating for good (for at least as long as I can keep out of it.) I had a couple of open debates to finish though before I gave it up for good. Well, Both of them are finished now. No further posts from Vorn on the internet debate, so it’ll just probably be an agreement on “something needs to be done with different linux interfaces” as the rest was merely semantics.

The other ended in a different state. Pretty much I had a fixed time limit on how long I would mess with it. I’ve decided to let him and his organization live with the consequences of his actions. Hopefully he will mellow out after that though. After a week of one-post-per-day on his forum I ended it with saying “Just because you have replied to every post doesn’t mean you have to reply to every post.” He’s really big on getting the last word in. I exchanged about 3 posts in another topic as well about credibility being hurt by name calling and angry flaming. He basically said it doesn’t matter how much insulting a person has done to you, as you should always take their advice. My (and several other people’s) replies were, acting rude drops your credibility drastically. People frequently delete or ignore a message based on angry flaming in the first line or two. My note also said that anger and flaming generally indicates that someone is too closely involved with what they’re writing about and may be letting their preferences or feelings get in the way of rational judgment.

After his final post I looked at all 3 of his posts and the 2 of mine, and concluded that no amount of talking would ever get him to say anything different. Any further posts would be roughly exactly like the final 2 posts in that topic cut and pasted infinitely. My final reply to any of his posts was roughly:

It’s time for me to follow my own advice. Just because you have replied to every post doesn’t mean you have to reply to every post. My answer to your latest post is the post you replied to. Pay extra attention to the parts you chose to omit. Feel free to read my post and reply to it infinitely.

To Bobby: Have a nice life. Hope you can do something more productive than debating on the internet all your life. For me, the short term experiment is over.

And with that, I’m going to go get a drink.