Ha ha ha, now I see why TJ Spyke would get so mad. You all basically goaded him into acting like he did. If you all had left him alone after he was banned, nothing else would have happened. I was planning on coming back after my banning and just letting all that old stuff die.
But nope, the NWR mentality never fails and someone decided to goad me into an argument over something that has no relevance. Which, if I remember correctly, is the reason I got banned: I was goaded by something I had previously done, I got extremely angry, and said some things that I shouldn't have said.
This is exactly the same thing you guys did to TJ for a long time, and I'm sure it's going to end the same way for me. So I ask that you cut that **** out and drop it. If I can't act my age, at least you all can do so.
For the most part, I'm with you. However, if you are going to comment about someone in a negative manner, even sarcastically, be prepared for them to respond back in defense of themselves.
Awhile ago, maybe I was tired or just unusually annoyed more than normal about Azeke posting about how great W101 was because someone didn't give it the same respect he gives it in their post and it just irked me because it seemed to be happening a lot lately. There is a lot of repetitive behaviour and discussion on this forum. Anyways, I just posted that I thought he was overdoing it and to please tone it down or stop. I tried to keep it civil and polite as there was nothing wrong he was doing in posting about it and frankly, maybe I was the only one to feel that way so I wasn't about to act like I spoke for everyone. It was just to convey how I was viewing things. Plus, he's been one of them more recent and prolific posters and I'm not interested in getting into a feud with other posters that care about this site.
After I posted it, I got 4 smites added to my score which I thought might happen since it was one of the more, shall we say, argumentative posts I'd made in awhile.
You can smite my score but you can not smite my spirit or change my opinion! Of course, azeke did respond since my post was addressed to him. He basically said that the game was too good to not talk about and he wasn't going to stop and that I hated fun. Now, I could have responded back to that last part but why? Where would such a discussion go anyways? It's not like it was a major forum issue. I brought forth my opinion and said my piece on the matter. He said his piece and gave his response which is his right to do so. I saw no need to go further than that and left the matter alone.
You can ask people to cut it out but, in all honesty, it is a natural feeling to respond back to someone if they criticize you. You call it goading which it may be at times but if you say something negative about a person, that person will then want to reply back with something more negative about you in order to make them look better and you worse. It happens everywhere in life. My secret is that I let them. If someone wants to accuse me of some negative traits and behavior, they can go ahead. I do it because if they are right, then I can't really argue the point and if they are wrong, I believe I will show this to be the case by behaving as I always behave and the unwavering belief that my actions will speak louder than my words.
Thus, my tip and the point of this post is this. If you are going to criticize someone, no matter how right you may be, expect them to respond back. If they do respond back, remember that they are only doing so because you pointed something out about them so it is only fair they have a chance at rebuttal. After the rebuttal, it is probably best to say nothing at all unless there is something that really, really needs clarification. Finally, if others join in the conversation in defense of the other poster, then you could consider it as your rebuttal to that person and respond to those comments if you wish. However, I would consider it evidence that my opinion does not have majority support and therefore there is no point in continuing further discussion or trying to defend it. That was TJ's problem mainly. He'd offer his thoughts. If others disagreed or really proved it wrong, he'd still continue on arguing and defending it. If he just let it drop having made his say once on the matter, then he most likely wouldn't have gotten so many people's ire.
Still, I applaud your desire to let the past remain the past and move forward. Best of luck.