I guess somebody has to state the obvious or anyone who reads this thread will not understand or appreciate what all the fuss is about.

The poster in question is well-known in 2+2 circles. I have had several conversations with other mods about his posting style over the years. Everyone agrees that his posting style is far from ideal in that it alienates him and annoys other 2+2 members.

Several mods and many others have tried to get him to improve his posting style via helpful suggestions and honest feedback. The poster in question has adamantly refused to alter his posting style and has engaged in several back-and-forths on the forum on that very subject, some becoming quite heated.

Personally, I think the poster in question is one of the worst posters I have ever seen on 2+2. I can speak from personal experience that his presence in any 2+2 thread significantly lowers my participation and viewership of that thread. Based upon my own reaction, I would not be surprised to learn that he has driven people away from SMP and 2+2.

In parting, I fully support the SMP forum's desire to engender a community of posters who engage in friendly and respectful discussion. The ideal of a friendly and respectful community is far more valuable than the contribution of any individual poster.

Strange 2+2 can't stand a substance poster like masque. You don't have to read all of it. Especially SMP not standing it is small thinking. I kind of understand your arguments, but anyway. Destroying substance for neatness can't be right.

2+2 is anti-intellectual in the interest of amity and harmony. mmkay

Didn't he leave on his own? Just like his great coward hero?

What make you think you have an ability to change other people's expression in the first place?

He's still with us, I'm trying to be the catalyst.

Partly white knighting, but 65-70% substance hunt. Follow the IDA thread in SMP for further read.

You make the place people would rather not be and then think they have some sort of duty to be here.

Posters, particularly ones who put lots of time and effort into serious content are not going to do it.

Not sure what you're talking about there Chez, I don't care if he stays or goes.

But if he can't take criticism and pitches a fit every time he gets challenged, that's on him. Nobody except the likes of you and a handful of others feels like kissing his overbearing ass.

What else could you say at this point? You're all in with the acrimony.

He's (almost) never criticized on content but virtually always attacked on form. That's not right but is tolerated because... mob rule, no balls, thin skin, victim blaming narrative, something something

Fair enough.

I don't read much SMP, but I've enjoyed following several threads where BTM has torn him up pretty good, and mostly all on content.

And the last he was seen in Politics he got run off based on bad maths, so there's that too.

You may well be right as to masque's motivations, and I may have done him an injustice with that comment. Fair play.

But do you think his answer to that question would be useful to a layman, or someone with only everyday math skills?

I recommend reading Robert Sheckley's sci-fi short story 'Ask a Foolish Question'. It's only a few pages and available as a free .pdf

lol no. Masque got critiqued on content as well as form.

this thread doesn't get started if it's about a poster who can't take criticism of his content on academic grounds. it's the attacks on his style that is the real issue

Non sequitur.

Far from ideal, right?

He took a great deal of personal abuse and trolling from people who seem to delight in what they charmingly call 'running off'

The question isn't always why people stop posting. Sometimes it's why on earth would they post - they're not getting paid for it.

As a vocal critic and the straw that broke Masque's back, I will say that style and substance are linked. Pretending that the two components are separable is an error.

My primary problem with his approach to posting was not just that it was of poor style, but that the actual substance was often (not always) very weak. In areas pertaining directly to high level physics, he was a good poster. For topics outside of that strength, he had a very high level of noise and very little meaningful signal. By itself, this isn't a problem. But he seemed rather adept at not demonstrating any sense of intellectual humility or academic honesty when it came to evaluating those errors.

Above all, that's the thing that caused me frustration with his posting. He was an exceedingly arrogant poster. He often claimed to be taking the high road in pursuit of learning things, but there was very little evidence that he actually tried to learn anything from other posters. He would simply continue to insist on the rightness of all of his positions and take criticisms of those positions as insults to his intelligence.

I offer this thread as evidence.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/47...oblem-1579198/

I especially would point out his first response to me when I challenged his seven point plan to making the problem more sensible.

He should pay us if he wants us to read the novels he pens for every single response.

Why not accept Masque for who he is, rather than who you would prefer him to be?

I have doubts that are you less arrogant than Masque, if such an attribute could be accurately measured. That's probably why all your efforts to change his expressions failed and instead he just stopped posting and you got a thread in ATF.

Accepting someone for who they are doesn't mean pretending like their flaws don't exist. (Also, an obvious retort for me is to ask why he doesn't accept me for who I am.)

Masque existed in that strange self-contradiction where the behaviors he chose (long, rambling posting) were not conducive to the things he desired (active, meaningful intellectual interaction with other posters). He had ideas he wanted to share, but chose to share his ideas in a way that would cause people to not want to listen. This problem is largely of his own making.

I never claimed to be less arrogant. But I do approach posters with the level of civility that I perceive them approaching me with.

Edit: And I won't be playing the victim card here, either.

You can just not read his stuff if you dont want to.

The same can be said of him and to him.

No, it doesn't. I'm not even sure what accepting someone for who they are does mean, come to think of it.