[maximusprime]

He's not the problem though. The problem is people being offended by it or taking the bait.

Ban, ignore, report, shun etc...

Setting up a geek feminist movement is pretty much the worst thing you could do if you wanted the abuse to stop.

[bigB]

I don't know about you, but that's a poor and weak excuse. Would your be offended If I said that to your wife, daughter, mother in person.

If someone said that to my wife in person I would break their nose, so why should online be any different.

[epscylonb]

The statement (insult, trollbait, whatever you want to call it) doesn't make sense.

I would be a bit unhappy and would try and get away from the guy, but I wouldn't challenge him on it and try and start an altercation.

[maximusprime]

If you said things to me / my family in person, there is the added threat of violence.

Online, there is no such threat. You could just as easily be a bot spewing hate, as a real human being. And being offended by a bot is pretty irrational.

Online, there is "data". If I know you, or have formed attachment to you via ongoing conversations etc or divulging details about myself, then the data becomes more meaningful and has emotion attached to it. But random data? No point being offended by that.

FWIW If someone I didn't know said that to my wife/mother/etc we'd just ignore them and walk away.

[bigB]

If that person kept coming back again and again with the same or similar comments, would you see the threat, this is what is happening here if you care to actually read the articles

[maximusprime]

I do have sympathy, but I think it's pretty sad to call the 'sexist' card when it's clearly just a case of a troll.

If you ignore him, he'll move on to someone else soon enough. It looks from the article that he wasn't being ignored at all.

[anigbrowl]

If you ignore him, he'll move on to someone else soon enough.

Citation needed. You are assuming the trolling person is moderately rational and will go somewhere else if his selected target isn't yielding sufficient lulz. Unfortunately, it's all too easy to find stories of irrational people who escalate their harassment under such circumstances. Every few weeks there's a news story about some marginal person who loses the plot and goes on a shooting spree, so the risk of escalation is clearly non-zero.

[div]

It's so easy these days to be a raging sexist and play the 'troll' card.

[scott_s]

Please read this post: http://geekfeminism.org/2011/10/11/online-harassment-as-a-da...

[propater]

If you want to change the statu quo, you have to speak up. Saying the solution to sexism is to shut up is not helping to solve the problem (and there is a problem, I witnessed it several times in real life, it is not just a "troll problem".)

[DiabloD3]

When you start ban evading, you ARE a problem.

Not that I'm sticking up for those who take the bait, feeding the troll is always bad, but MikeeUSA and his ilk should just stay on /b/ where they belong.