How Dr. Tom operates, and why flames rage on.

[toddpw@ugcs.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)]

"Charles T. 'Dr. Tom' Turley" <gbmaidsf@wco.com> writes:

>Mark, continual comments about me like your libel statements against me:
>per the <4skakb$pnp@blackice.winternet.com> post reply to this newsgroup 
>are going to result in your loosing your acct. at Winternet.com.  I 
>really would advise you to stop now - before action is taken to revoke 
>your services from Winternet - ASAP!

I've been off the net for months, but I heard c.s.a2 was hip-deep in Turley
again so I decided to check things out. I almost made it through without
de-lurking but, nope, he had to pull one of these stunts again...

Those of you who believe Dr. Tom to be a benefit to c.s.a2 have experienced
the "good" Dr. Tom, the one who selflessly donates his ample free time and
computing resources to the Cause. But there is also a "bad" Dr. Tom, the one
who posts 'help' which turns out to be inaccurate and misleading, and when
someone calls him on it he seizes _anything_ flammable in their post and
proceeds to single-handledly start and maintain a flamewar about the topic.

How can he be responsible for all this? Isn't everyone else to blame too?

Not really. The reason Dr. Tom's flamewars keep going is because he _never_
lets someone have the last word. EVER!! (Okay, maybe he misses a couple,
we're all human.)

So why don't the rest of us just let his posts drop so the flamewar will end?

Because Dr. Tom always does something in his 'last word' post that is like
a gauntlet thrown down on the field to challenge someone. That someone can
either ignore it and let Dr. Tom appear to be Just and Righteous and Victorious
to those are mostly familiar with the "good" Dr. Tom, or he can stand up for
himself and, in so doing, perpetuate the flame war.

I found the only way to avoid this was to literally not care what Dr. Tom
says about me, whether on his web page or anywhere else, and to only respond
to him with either (a) debunking facts that anyone can verify against
independent sources, or (b) zingers so good I couldn't resist the temptation
to post them.

Gee, why don't we all killfile him then?

We could, but who would warn the new users, the ones who are really asking
the questions and who are the real reason many of us (including Dr. Tom)
hang out here?

I once told Dr. Tom that we were better off not having to perform damage
control all the time because of his overly enthusiastic efforts to help
everyone. I can see that this is still the fuse that lights the bombs.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ ugcs.caltech.edu