DivisionByZero

i’ve recently gotten into a flamewar with some jerk off the tech today forum in pinoyexchange.

someone was asking if it were possibly to get a user’s information just by tracing his ip address.

my answer was that generally, you can’t. even if you have access to the log files of all the servers the user passed through, establishing his identity is a different thing. what if the ip traces to a prepaid dial-up? or an internet café? or a university lab?

then, comes this jerk, another poster, who tells me that i’m wrong and then goes on to throw all sorts of seemingly ridiculous arguments and sarcastic remarks despite my effort to keep the discussion as reasonable as possible. the asshole even went to the extent of getting personal with me, mocking my previous job in an isp and even my username.

it’s not the first time i’ve been in a flame war. i’ve been in those situation a few times already and all of them have been ugly (some of them with close friends).

probably the reason i always seem to be getting into online fistfights is that one of my great weaknesses is that i can become quite combative whenever my ideas are being contradicted (especially from people who don’t even know what they’re talking about). i have that scientist mentality in me and scientists would die for their ideas. not to mention the fact i can keep a high degree of pride.

krakista, a long-time pex user and online acquaintance, once sent me a private message during one heated argument with another pex user a few years back, that engaging in online arguments are pointless, a waste of time, and generally does not resolve anything. too bad i had to have a few ugly ones before i’m finally realizing how right he was.

so the next time some troll tells you that your favorite text editor, music, political party, operating system, programming language, or even your face sucks, don’t hit the reply button immediately. he’s probably some attention-deficient jerk who’s got nothing better to do with his time. cool off. do something else. sleep it off. you’ll be feeling differently the next day. you know you’re right anyway. and even if you’re not - so what? nobody’s perfect. there’s no need to apologize.

don’t give a troll what he wants. ignoring him is the best revenge.