[tptacek]

I first posted on it at the same time you did.

There's probably no less effective way to persuade people than by pointing out that people who disagree with you "deserve derision". It's a uniquely bad rhetorical strategy. It makes you look like you care less about the underlying issue than you do about status.

[parfe]

It's not about persuasion. The guy doesn't like feminism. What's there to persuade? He's not suddenly going to think "Oh, thanks for typing up a dissertation on why work still needs to be done for women to have to equal opportunity and choice in our community! I hadn't thought of it before."

He's free to not like feminism. I don't care. But as ck2 did, I highlighted how absurd it is that someone came in here with the implicit comment that if the project just made a simple change he wouldn't have a problem with it. That's absurd. If you have a problem with the word feminist you have a problem with feminism, which the project is promoting.

And doubly absurd that your issue is with me and not a community that flagkilled the story within an hour and upvoted a comment asking that the dirty f-word not be used.

[tptacek]

The guy you responded to isn't the only person reading your comments.

When your comments stop being about persuading and start being about attempts to shame people, that's a cue that maybe it's time to let the thread die. Anyone who truly deserves derision probably doesn't care about your attempts at shaming, and meanwhile incivility makes the whole thread look bad.