I'm a bit frustrated right now. I tried to engage in a constructive discussion and someone, who is complaining about harassment, has responded to me very rudely and in a very passive aggressive tone. I've flagged the comment, but I'm worried that this is a normal thing.

> As for your other suggestion, I'll take that and the 6 upvotes on my above comment in consideration, maybe you should too? It's not just me, hon

Come to think of it, the only two comments I've flagged on this site recently came from this one user, including one where they out of the blue alienated another new user. And then they go on to strawman and accuse me of attacking them and implying that I think harassment is good and that they deserved it... It's making this community look like it's tolerating toxicity. I don't feel welcome, at least. :/

And I looked at some of their other comments and see:

After telling a user out of the blue that their advice (which I find decent) is worthless and that they are ignorant, when the user being targeted has done nothing but be polite. Is this a trend?

Hmm. If you've seen a pattern, flag one of the user's objectional actions for mod attention with a custom message describing the pattern.

@BESW I have, but this user is a regular so I don't expect (or want) them to be suspended. I just hope that a moderator will talk to them about their passive aggressive behavior in comments.

That'd be one possible outcome of a flag, yes.

Not all flags are demands for mechanical response.

Yeah I know. I just take exception to my first experience with this site having a passive aggressive comment implying that I think they deserve harassment, and then being called "hun"...

I hear ya, that's not cool at all.

Steps Should Be Taken.

I've flagged the comments. I hope others will too but probably not if it's a regular. :/

M'rr. Regularity shouldn't be a factor in kindness and compassion.

It looks like my flags were accepted and the offensive comments were removed.

I'm glad it worked out. Still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, but it could be worse. :P

@forest To be honest there are a few users that I simply don't answer / comment anymore here because of exactly the problems you have described. You have met them as far as I can tell just by looking at what's left and what you wrote here. I can understand the bitter taste, but ignoring them and their unwillingness to even learn about site features is the way to go here.

Just to be clear: being a regular doesn't mean they can do that and you should definitely flag it. Just don't answer once it starts, it never ends.

Especially social topics and anything with HNQ is extremely problematic. And things that could, potentially, have any sort of connection to those topics...