On Tue, 02 Jul 2013 07:14:42 +0000, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Mon, 01 Jul 2013 21:34:42 -0700, rusi wrote:
>
>> 2. "I am killfiling you" is bullying behavior. It is worse than
>> useless because a. The problem cases couldn't care a hoot b. Those who
>> could contribute usefully are shut up c. The messengers are being shot
>> as substitute for the culprits
>
> I don't accept this analysis. Withholding my attention is not bullying.
> I have no responsibility towards people asking questions here, apart
> from the ethical responsibility to not maliciously give them bad advice.
> I can come or go as I see fit, I can ignore those whom I so choose. If I
> were to abuse this right, say by refusing to answer questions asked by
> women, that would make me a dirty sexist bigot, but it wouldn't make me
> a bully,
> any more than taking a week off and not responding during that time
> makes me a bully.
>
> If I choose to ignore those who (in my opinion) are not living up to the
> implied social contract ("don't be a dick, and I'll help you, if I
> can"),
> that's hardly bulling either.
>
> Kill-filing is just a version of shunning. Like shunning in Real Life, I
> can do it for good reasons or bad. If I kill-file people because they
> said they preferred Ruby to Python, that would make me a dick, but if I
> kill-file people who disrupt the community, and do so publicly, I'm
> sending a signal to them that "your behaviour is unacceptable to me".
>
> Provided enough people follow, shunning is an effective way to
> discourage disruptive behaviour. Trolls will get bored when they no
> longer get a response, and move on. Those actually wanting help will
> either get frustrated and move on, or mend their ways.
>
> Kill-filing is not perfect, of course, but until such time that we can
> deliver a swift kick to the behind over the internet, it is the best we
> can do.
>
> Oh, and one last point -- I have never kill-filed anyone merely for
> being the messenger that another person is causing trouble, as you
> suggest. I have kill-filed people for being abusive, for flaming, or for
> trolling.
For me it's even simpler. I killfile people because I don't want to read
what they post.
FWIW, there are only four entries in my killfile for comp.lang.python,
and three of them are you-know-who.
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