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I would say that It depends on the venue that the troll shows up at. In the past I have participated in Evolution/Creation discussion lists and it is useful responding to trolls since a response can be educational for others on the list, as well as good practice for written debates. Sometimes the known trolls were even better at presenting the creationists arguements than the creationists. In fact if you are interested in practicing your written debate skills I would recommend joining a C/E debate list for a few weeks or months. I know it has helped me with my work. Learning to spot bad logic or poor reasoning has been very helpful when I have had to give advice for government responses to certain allegations against the mining industry. However, on more serious discussion lists (similar to this one) it has been found that the quickest way of getting rid of them is letting them starve. So, I consider the venue. If it is a list with a large number of lurkers who have poor understanding of science and may learn a lot from a response I would not hesitate in responding. On other lists I just ignore them. However, I found the responses to this particular troll very interesting and seeing other people's written approach to debate is also a learning experience. I do not think there is only one correct way of dealing with them. Regards Paul Blake What does a freely accessible list do about trolls? This question always elicits a variety of opinion. Responding to them can certainly be a fruitless and frustrating exercise and can also become a big time sink and even an obsession in itself. This no doubt leads many to the conclusion that its best to simply ignore trolls. I understand this position but don't quite agree. Responding does help to sharpen how you think and helps to review your own value systems. It is therefore marginally less pointless than not responding. Sure, it does occupy bandwidth that can annoy many other list dwellers, and yes it does fuel the troll ego. As the main, and probably only, benefit of responding is a personal one, perhaps these would be better conducted off list. nuff said? Andrew Andrew Simpson Science Museums Division of Environmental and Life Sciences Macquarie University NSW 2109 ph (61 2) 98508183 fax (61 2) 98509671 email: asimpson@els.mq.edu.au http://www.museums.mq.edu.au "The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment" >>> pblake@dme.qld.gov.au 09/06/01 07:38am >>> I guess this is paleonet's first major troll. Other than one other loony earlier this year claiming that non-science (i.e. creationism) should be taught in science class you do not get too many losers on this list. Troll spotting is an aquired art and learning to ignore them takes even more practice. ^_^ Regards Paul Blake Hi All, I am really disappointed about the degree of interest that this bit of absurdity has generated. The next time such nonsense comes in on the paleonet lets have the collective good sense to hit the delete button. Pristis@aol.com wrote: <snip> -- Prof. Ronald L. Parsley Department of Geology Tulane University New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 Phone: (504) 862-3191 FAX: (504) 865-5199 e-mail <parsley@tulane.edu>
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