I would have hoped that this would be evident enough, but since this morning I decided to avoid any more of this nonsense and gratuitous abuse, but, glancing at the names, or name, repetitively, it's been clear that Fabio has carried on regardless. An incriminatingly sign in itself, one would have thought, but apparently not, to those, in a sadly Burkean way, who lurk around it when they could so easily and justifiably step in. So, before ignoring the thread again, permanently, I think for my own peace of mind, as well as well as the right to stand up for myself, I may as well suggest a number of things to look out for, should you, who couldn't be arsed to intervene, find yourself in the same situation.
1. Isolation: If you're going to push someone unfairly into a stereotype of your own making, make sure there's no comparison available at all. That will wreck your case in an argumentative forum in which any post, or posts, can incriminate, in isolation, anyone. Think of Modo. Think of Raz - neither of whom, interestingly, has ever received the ad hominem attacks I've had. Draw a circle around the person and then accuse him or her of whatever crap you like and assume no one will bother to interject to point out that's biased and manipulative. It works. I can assure you of that. (Thanks Oncey. You're utterly useless.)
2. Project like mad. In a forum in which most people regularly disagree, redefine that practice, in pure isolation, so that the person who disagrees with you can be slurred as someone who cannot tolerate another opinion, so long as it's yours. You can actually try this low trick on anyone else on here, as any intelligent poster knows, even though they still don't intervene, but it remains a lazy, cowardly and cynical move device (wake up all of those who regularly clash with Mark - he won't ignore you forever). If they agree with you - well, of course. If they don't - well, for god's sake, they can't take any other opinion! Isn't that obvious??
3. Drive home the stereotype you've lovingly created. This is a great one - so good you should have everyone else wearing orange jump suits. If they go away from the site before they're finished with you, it's a bonus - more wood to the fire. I've actually longed to piss off like that very decent and amiable man Vlad has (wonder why he did - could it possibly be someone else's fault? Surely not!) but I know that if I did it will all go into a little black book - by a teflon-coated member of the site - and be claimed I 'flounced off' (again, wrongly) so I've kept posting purely because otherwise that'll happen. Then there's the streams. Now I don't ever use streams - it's purely a public service - and frankly, seeing as I have to take my laptop to be cleaned every other week because of all the trojans and other random malware I pick up assessing the options, I'd love to pass the job on instantly - maybe a great task for Mark, to distract him from all the other posters supposedly don't exist - but the only reason I don't is because that, to do so, would be classed as some kind of 'sulk'.
It's a great lark, this manipulative game, eh? You can keep it for ages, if you have the right people sitting on their hands. You must be a proud bunch, eh?
To the hell with it. I'll leave this thread again and ignore it - ain't it odd how the supposedly sinned against keep it coming, even when there's no response until now? - but to the rest of you - grow a backbone, eh, and grow up.