So I flamed the crap out of someone the other day ...

for the first time (not on here) and I still feel guilty. (I'm not gonna post the email exchange for privacy purposes.)

He was really asking for it. He totally called me out on a public forum, claiming that I had changed my position (not true), misquoting me, laughing at remarks that I had made, using all caps, and basically behaving like an ass.

I wrote him a private post basically saying, very politely, here are my problems with what that:
1- if you have a problem with me take it private, don't post to the whole group.
2- you misquoted me, here's how.
3- you misrepresented what I said, here's how.
4- you made a personal attack on me, here's what it was.

and for my fifth point, I dropped the politeness and I totally ripped him a new one, telling him that he didn't even know me, how dare he use that tone with me, he's sitting here giving shit to someone who is on his side in the issue, etc. All caps, did everything but tell him to go fuck himself.

He still hasn't written back, and this is the first time I've ever done this, and, two days later, I still feel this weird mixture of elation, anger, and guilt. I THINK I handled it correctly, in that I was totally polite about it (at first), and even though I believe that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," I also believe you've gotta stand up for yourself and by GOD I wasn't going to let him get away with that shite.

I dunno, did I handle it right? Ya'll got any legendary flame wars to share? Tell stories! :D

But I have had times where someone has made asinine comments about me personally, based on them simply judging me by my screenname or something else irrelevant. So I can't say as I blame you.

eom

even my coworkers know not to fuck with me. I'm legendary when pissed off. I don't get pissed off very often, but when I do... watch out! :D

I think it might be... well... I guess it's not that bad. :D

:P

but have a care too to realize when you are being manipulated by a disruptor.

Just kidding. It does get easier though, I'll not lie. But, I still feel bad. But, sometimes they deserve it. I've been on the receiving end, too.

i've done this a couple times (privately), and logically and systematically destroyed whatever their position was, and they have NEVER written back

at each other because art is so subjective,i think your dingbat had it coming to him ,some people derive great pleasure from being net jerks and they are the ones who never seem to respond.
At one site that has been almost destroyed by one paranoid skitzo i posted my adress,phone number and told him i would like to talk to him.Surprised he hasn't shown up here.

who cannot rest until they see they've riled you; then when you flip, you never hear a peep out of them again. They're almost kind of happy about it. I found that out in the army. And it was just "handbags at ten paces". Just bawling the person out.

The blokes in my troop were hysterical about it, when I flipped and bawled out some big mean Orange Lodge character and they could hear me in the Battery Office upstairs. If they'd seen the way the creep cringed, they'd probably have exploded. People react in the strangest ways.

But the funniest incidents arose as a result of "Ginge" Brown, the legendary hard man of the regiment telling everyone, I'd beaten him up and thrown him into the piano at Schmidt's boozer. The truth was that I'd simply been arguing with him on the subject of racism, but humour was pretty much the focus of our life, and this was one of Ginge's more inspired jokes.

But people were coming up to me weeks later asking me if it was true ! All I was worried about was waking up one morning with my head kicked in. "Oh he's a hard man, is he. We'll see how hard he is!"