With due respect to Railton and Airbalancer, I disagree slightly with that comment. I do not think that just because a poster is "egged on" or "baited" into a violent argument, he/she needs to respond that way. Many posters, if baited, just "walk away" or ignore the comments made, or turn the comments into a joke. A mature poster can do that (and I'm not saying I am always successful at doing that myself..!!). People would bait Barrie as they knew he would react, usually violently/profanely.
I also think that discussions, even arguments, can happen on a forum without the resorting to name calling and questions of one's mother's pedigree. Surely we can present opposing viewpoints and agrue without being banned. It's the personal attacks that caused this poster, after repeated warnings, to be banned.
This particularly applies in the "Off Topic" threads, where there are some subjects I would never get into on a forum as they always end up in severe arguments, and name calling (any threads on abortion and organized religion are like that, to name only two). Those topics are "no-wins" in my book.
