When I come into a pathetic rant, I respond. My response is the pathetic posters gain. 

Stark mutters to himself 

Pathetic

you are silly

This is true.  It's part of the reason you no longer see people speaking out against the bullshit in the streets.  They don't want to give anything to people they disagree with so much.

That would be a very counter-intuitive train of thought. Opinions are changed through persuasive discourse, so a failure to engage in that discourse is more likely to result in the continuation of the undesirable behaviours. 

In the case of a normal person whose opinions might be swayed by a passionate and well-thought-out argument, I would agree with you.  However, when dealing with people who voice their opinions for the sole purpose of the entertainment value found in upsetting people... you're more than likely just wasting your time.  

I think, in some cases here at MR, discussions and debates are highly productive.  I've had my point of view changed a few times on topics I thought I had no give on.  However, the argument has been made by many people that some folks come to the streets just to grief others (finding that act to be fun) or just to earn credits.  In either of those cases, it would be counter-productive to find a middle ground and more than likely the people in question would find their goals best achieved by continuing to be argumentative and insulting rather than resolving their differences.

In the cases where someone is merely posting to rack up credits or grief for fun, responding only results in giving the negative person the attention and rewards they seek.  Parents often find that when their children act out for attention or rewards it's often better to ignore the silliness than to give it undue response.

I can't see how ignoring the people that are posting to rack up credits could possibly work? They aren't bothered about interaction as their posts do not attempt to create any, and if their threads are completely ignored they get the same rewards anyway.

I don't go out to the streets to be intentionally mean or to try and piss people off, and I don't feel like I've actually been very harsh to people. (If you were including me in what you were saying about people voicing opinions for the sole purpose of upsetting people.) If that's how my posts come across, then I apologise. If people are unable to take a bit of criticism when they're clearly exploiting a rewards system though, that's their fault.

ar you sure you just realized