He expressed a negative but somewhat well-argued opinion,
Well, since you mention it: could you explain to me just
what his arguments were? Because all I got was, "This comic sucks because it didn't turn out to be what I wanted it to be", which is not any kind of argument as far as I can tell ???
and got a bunch of people piling on him to silence him, some with good arguments,
I'd like to think that my answers were among those good arguments, and he made a very visible point of ignoring them. That's not the behaviour of someone trying to discuss anything.
(Seriously, if I were making a comic and my readers would defend me with "but so much work goes into it!! it updates daily!" I would be so ashamed.)
That was only one of
many arguments that were made.
He became rude only after some fans made it clear that they can't bear any criticism of the comic whatsoever
Dude, you're talking to the guy who very publicly criticised the comic only two weeks ago
! I don't think that
I, of all people, can be said to not be able to "bear any criticism of the comic whatsoever". And yet this guy rudely dismissed my answers as "fanboy theses" and implied that I was stupid and butthurt and an immature teenager. I mean, come on!
I think the real problem here is that some of us just can't stand the fact that some people don't like this comic.
That's not true, and I'm living proof of it.
Nobody tried to crucify me when I had my meltdown -
because I didn't act like a troll. When people engaged me, I respected them and their opinions. I didn't dismiss everyone who didn't agree with me as stupid, butthurt, immature teenagers. I didn't imply that I knew better than Minna what she should do with her comic. This guy did all of that, and that makes him a troll.
The community will be fine. Seriously. You don't have to reply, and you can't change their mind anyway.
But that's the thing with trolls: it's too late to "not reply" once you identify them. This guy upset quite a few people, and then doubled down by insulting the upset people. The community will be fine, I totally agree, but he did do some damage. Nothing lasting nor horrible, but nothing that needed to happen either, and there's no reason to whitewash his misbehaviour.
For whatever's worth, here's the guy having a completely civil exchange with me: https://disqus.com/home/discussion/sssscomic/stand_still_stay_silent_webcomic_page_460/#comment-2484701080 I bet he was polite with me because, unlike most people who replied, I was fine with him not liking the comic.
Can't be, because I too was fine with him not liking the comic. I said so in
my very first comment to him: "
Sounds to me like "some more drama, some scarier things and a bit more action-y stuff, but in its core it's still a quite light story with an unhurried pace, a lot of friendship and a journey through the unknown" is simply not your cup of tea." And I wasn't the only one either. The difference between you and me is that I also disagreed with his opinion on the comic having "serious pacing and plot issues", while you didn't. In other words: this guy wants to be allowed to give negative criticism, but refuses to take it too in return. Another sign that he's not there to discuss honestly.
This is one of the best ways to tell someone's not a troll, actually. He shuts up if he's ignored. A troll will only intensify his abuse and pick on more people until he gets banned.
Erm, no. "Don't feed the trolls" is a common saying for a good reason: because it
works with most trolls. Most trolls give up if they are ignored, because being ignored is no fun for them. Only the most tenacious ones keep going until they get banned. In fact, most trolls I've known are very careful NOT to get banned: they will skirt the line again and again and again, but never to the point of getting banned, because again, where would the fun be in that?
