Conversation started Mar 23, 2015 at 9:46.
Mar 23, 2015 09:46
Oh, joy. Now mikeserv has acquired using dd as a new pet peeve.
Mar 23, 2015 09:57
@Gilles Can't you just ignore him? Or is that a dumb question?
Mar 23, 2015 10:09
@FaheemMitha I wish. The problem is that he insists on leaving trolling (incorrect and often aggressive) comments on my answers.
@Gilles And you can't ignore those comments? Like, pretend they were never written?
@FaheemMitha No, because they show up in my inbox
I don't think SE has an ignore feature like in IRC.
@Gilles Ok, but you don't have to respond to them.
I mean, you don't even have to read them.
There is no law saying you have to read comments on an answer.
@FaheemMitha I don't reply to them.
@Gilles ok
You just object to receiving them?
Mar 23, 2015 10:12
Which worries me sometimes, because he knows enough to sound plausible, but what he says is usually wrong (even if he has a good point somewhere, it's almost always buried in something, anything he could find to claim that I wrote something wrong, when all I did was to write something that's perfectly correct but goes against one of his pet peeve).
@FaheemMitha I have to read them and find out that it's by him
@Gilles yes, I see. And even if you ignore it, other users can read it. And might expect you to respond.
the answers haven't really helped
@FaheemMitha Yes. Yesterday the asker asked why my answer was downvoted. I wonder what to tell him.
There was a slurry of comments by mikeserv, where he claimed a lot of things I wrote were wrong. In this case, he didn't have anything to propose, he just said he didn't believe a bunch of things, when looking them up in the manual would have backed me up.
@Gilles The best thing would be to ask SE to enforce a permanent ban on him commenting on your posts. But from the question you linked to, it seems they can't or won't do that.
The comments have since been removed.
Since you apparently make a policy to not comment on his answers/questions.
Mar 23, 2015 10:16
Should I tell the asker to ignore the downvote, it's just a troll who's after me?
@Gilles That's certainly a reasonable option.
I don't want to get him in mikeserv's bullying list.
But everyone gets downvoted some of the time.
For no reason, often.
@Gilles I don't think Mike is that crazy.
And if he is, that would be grounds for more drastic action.
@FaheemMitha I checked: the number of downvotes that I receive on U&L increased a lot since mikeserv started his campaign against me.
@Gilles that's bad. Do they ever get reversed?
Mar 23, 2015 10:18
like, 3x more or something.
@Gilles we don't want you to feel harassed. you're a valuable member of this community.
@FaheemMitha No. Compared with his voting patterns and my posting rate, it's still very little.
As I am sure you are aware.
Have you asked SE to tell him to stop commenting on your posts?
If it isn't an option, they will tell you. Or the mods, whatever.
He doesn't systematically downvote me, only when I fail to rub him right on one of his pet topics. If I don't mention any of his pet topics (initramfs, dd, quoting variable expansions, ...) he does upvote some of my answers.
@Gilles how can you tell? timing?
Mar 23, 2015 10:20
@FaheemMitha I did. And for a while he did.
Or because he leaves comments?
@FaheemMitha yes
At some point the mods told me to stop commenting on his posts or replying to his comments on pains of suspension, and that they'd told him the same thing.
Which suited me fine because I was already doing that.
But evidently they're no longer enforcing that.
mikeserv has changed a bit. He used to be very insulting in his comments. Now he's polite on the surface, though his discourse is still bent on exposing me for an incompetent.
And I don't claim to be an expert, not like, say, Stéphane.
But mikeserv's comments invariably show that there's something he doesn't get, and he blames me for that.
On a personal note I wish I could ignore him. But I'm also uncomfortable leaving his incorrect-but-not-obviously-so comments uncorrected.
I'm a bit surprised that I seem to be the only person he's latched onto.
@Gilles yes, I see.
@Gilles maybe ask them to go back to enforcing it? or are you uncomfortable doing that?
@Gilles: Why don't you show what points he was incorrect, then let community check them?
@cuonglm That's what I did at first. It led to long stream of comments with neither side backing down, which was just wasted time and noise.
Mar 23, 2015 10:30
@cuonglm I don't know if that is useful. This just devolves into argumentation.
@FaheemMitha I did. I didn't get a reply.
I don't know what else to do. But I can't go on like this.
And it is not like this site is filled with experts. Most people don't know or care about the finer points of whatever it is.
@Gilles What mechanism did you use? Email, comment/post somewhere?
@Gilles: I mean you can left all things in comment, then raise a question. So Community experts can read and check.
Now when I write a post I start wondering which pet peeve of mikeserv I'm going to trigger. Should I mikeserv-proof my post by explaining why I choose a particular tool that he doesn't like and why his favorite tool doesn't work for this job? And invariably I don't, because it would be totally useless to the rest of the audience, and because some of his peeves are subjective (e.g. what he considers clear code wouldn't pass code review in any serious professional environment).
I have seen many times that @StéphaneChazelas will give you great answers if you raise an appropriate question from comment discussion.
Mar 23, 2015 10:33
@FaheemMitha chat and flags
@Gilles ok
@cuonglm often the question in question would be the one I'm answering in the first place
@Gilles well, I wish I could help. If there is any way I can, please let me know. And I can't speak for other users here, but I'm sure all the regulars (and probably many others) don't want to see you quit the site out of disgust.
While we are not all friends here (we mostly don't really know each other) we should strive to keep this a courteous professional atmosphere.
@FaheemMitha Thank you
Mar 23, 2015 11:30
I wonder if I should take the leap and upgrade to jessie or wait.
 
Conversation ended Mar 23, 2015 at 11:30.