Not surprisingly, 525 Reasons gets a fair number of trollish posts. My rule is to ignore them, unless they're hopelessly vulgar, in which case I delete them. But last night I found this one:

WHEN ARE ALL OF YOU DUMB ASS LIBERAL FEMANATIZES GOING TO GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS AND LOOK AT REAL INFORMATION INSTEAD OF MAKING IT UP? I'LL BET YOU THOUGHT BILL CLINTON WAS A GOOD PRESIDENT? THE ONLY THING HE DID IN 8 LONG YEARS WAS GIVE US THE BIGGEST TAX INCREASE THE U.S. HAS EVER SEEN

Posted by TRICKY at August 2, 2004 10:35 PM

And I just couldn't resist:

Hiya TRICKY -

Femanatizes? Now how do you know Rhonda and I don't dress up in pearls and heels and dresses with crinoline skirts and meet our hardworking menfolk at the door with, respectively, a mug of beer and a shaker of martinis?

I mean, we don't (not usually), but what gave us away? Was it because if we're going to use a puerile term like "feminazis" we make damn sure we know how to spell it?

Hugs and kisses,

- J

Posted by Jane Is Feeling Feisty Tonight at August 5, 2004 11:43 PM

And then I immediately wrote to E:

Quick, while I can safely delete it - do you think this [link to comments] is a mistake?

To which he promptly replied:

I think it's hilarious, actually, but yeah, probably a little too feisty. Something more dignified would be more appropriate given the tone of the site overall.

And I promptly whined:

Damn. Are you sure it couldn't use a little more feistiness? And it's not like I'll get in an on-going battle. Do you think I can get away with it this one time?

And he responded:

Hey look, what's it say on that sign over there? Ah yes, "DON'T FEED THE TROLLS".

And added:

It only increases the chances of causing a flamewar in your comments section; you get enough stupid comments as it is, I think, no need to encourage more of them.

On top of that, what does being snarky gain you? Will people be more likely to trust your stance when they see you criticizing someone's spelling or when they see you calmly and rationally explicating the numberless reasons to dump Bush?

Make this about substantive and not. Honorable and not. Stupid nitpicking and not.

Give into the urge to nitpick his stupid feedback, and you lose the advantage.

Still, it IS pretty funny.

Apparently there's a tradition on the net to respond to trolls with recipes. You might consider that tack.

So we arrived at the compromise of dumping it here, where it can reside in an appropriately undignified environment, and I deleted it from 525 Reasons.