I share your suspicion that shouting at Eugine won’t actually help (but, well, nothing else has ever actually helped in the sense of getting him to behave better, so why not give shouting a try?) -- but I don’t think what he’s doing is exactly trolling, though clearly it has a thing or two in common with trolling.
Probably, yes. But, again, Eugine has shown no sign of needing any incentives or positive reinforcement to continue his destructive activities. The range of scenarios in which making him slightly more motivated to continue being obnoxious has any visible impact is pretty small.
To be explicit: I agree that shouting at Eugine is more likely harmful than helpful. But I also think Eugine has demonstrated near-complete indifference to actual outcomes, and the chance that saying anything short of “I know where you live and have hired a hitman” or “I am in the process of securing an injunction that legally prohibits you from commenting here” will make a nontrivial difference to his actions seems very small. (Whether those more drastic interventions, even if made credibly, would have any impact on his behaviour, I don’t know.)
LOL. Someone here doesn’t understand how trolling works.
I share your suspicion that shouting at Eugine won’t actually help (but, well, nothing else has ever actually helped in the sense of getting him to behave better, so why not give shouting a try?) -- but I don’t think what he’s doing is exactly trolling, though clearly it has a thing or two in common with trolling.
I think shouting is not just unhelpful here, I think it’s actually positive reinforcement and an incentive to continue.
Probably, yes. But, again, Eugine has shown no sign of needing any incentives or positive reinforcement to continue his destructive activities. The range of scenarios in which making him slightly more motivated to continue being obnoxious has any visible impact is pretty small.
To be explicit: I agree that shouting at Eugine is more likely harmful than helpful. But I also think Eugine has demonstrated near-complete indifference to actual outcomes, and the chance that saying anything short of “I know where you live and have hired a hitman” or “I am in the process of securing an injunction that legally prohibits you from commenting here” will make a nontrivial difference to his actions seems very small. (Whether those more drastic interventions, even if made credibly, would have any impact on his behaviour, I don’t know.)
(emphasis mine)
Which is why access to the backend database is such a useful thing to have :-/
Ay, there’s the rub.