07 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
Advice for Dealing with Trolls
What to do instead
So what should we do instead. It's very simple:
Ask him what he means. ; interrogate him:
"Why do you feel that Python is so bad? What do you find wrong with it?"
Agree with him (but use a softer language):
"Yes, Perl is a nice language, and I agree that Python has its downsides and/or trade-offs in comparison to Perl."
"It's OK to prefer Perl, we'll still accept you here."
This will make the troll lose steam and help you find a common ground.
And eventually nego...An interesting take on the issue, which borrows a page from Wikipedia's suggestions for debate.