I, too, have felt that Merlyn's tone has been a tad harsh now and again, but I generally blow it off because a) he's right a hell of lot more often than not and b) he's been around the block a hell of a lot more times than I have. And besides, people, don't you think he knows his style grates on people? I think his tendency to use smiley's more than most is evidence of his deliberately trying to take the edge off his posts.

But onto my point: I'm not sure you can do anything about Trolls (and Troll voting) without poisoning the well (freedom of speech means you're going to occasionally have people piss you off) but I don't buy the "Merlyn's a Saint and he's got a zillion XP so why should he care" argument. Yes, the actual damage is slight, but it's the intent that's worse than the loss of XP.

I mean, suppose you're some big strong guy and you help some old lady across a busy street. She takes your help, and on the other side of the street turns, slaps you in the face, stomps on your foot, and leaves, cursing your name. It's not that any real damage was done (you're a big strong guy, remember) it's not even that she wasn't grateful (though she certainly wasn't.) It's the disdain that's worse than anything else. Disdain from someone you went out of your way to help, where you're not getting anything out of the deal anyway, where you were just trying to be nice.Yeah, I'd be pissed if it were me, and yeah, you shouldn't begrudge Merlyn's right to be pissy when someone disses him for no reason.

I knew it would suck sometimes to be a "personality", but geez...

Gary Blackburn
Trained Killer