What Yonatan Gershon said in his answer:
I give you free reign to be an asshole, until you abuse that privilege.
I hate blocking and deleting comments. As I’ve said elsewhere (hello Clarissa; yes, Jae, I did finally give in and follow you), I know that it’s easy for me to take that attitude when I’m privileged.
But I’m an irenic, conflict-averse kinda guy, when it comes to topics other than comment blocking. And I’ve been online for 25 years: I’ve seen it all.
In making sense of my responses to comments, bear in mind what a Greek once said of me: “picture a Greek greengrocer, who’s culturally British”. A Brit not responding to you is the equivalent of a Greek running at you with a pitchfork.
So.
- I banter in comments. I welcome banter in comments. If we’ve got rapport, you may even get a really badly drawn cartoon.
- If you come at me with arguments, I won’t always like it, and I may well not change my answer; but I will have a lot of respect for you.
- If I mention you without hyperlinking to you, I don’t like you, and/or (usually and) I don’t want you to know what I’m saying about you. That usually extends to Quora staff, but there are two or three regular Quorans I do it to as well.
- If you tick me off, I may just… no, I’m pretty sure… Yeah, my mind’s made up: I will definitely refuse to upvote you.
- But that’s assuming you *really* tick me off.
- Like that guy who thought it useful to share with me that my wife’s name is awful? Seriously, what the hell’s up with that guy?
- If an argument is going south, feel free to have the last word. It’s not like any bystander won’t be able to tell which of us is the nutjob.
- I’ll give you a hint: I’m an irenic, conflict-averse kinda guy.