Perhaps there is a difference between "not wanting to engage on the matter" and "banning someone on sight"? Maybe there's polite ways to say, "Sorry, but we're not interested in supporting docker, and we don't care about any arguments for it" that would take less effort than rudely telling someone to fuck off?
Of course the suggestion of “banning on sight” could have been an attempt at humour by way of hyperbole, something I should have noted in my previous reply.
> that would take less effort than
Unfortunately, not always. Sometimes the only way to convince people that it isn't worth their time continuing to try to change your mind, is to blatantly be a dick about it. I try not to jump straight to dickishness though: I'll state my position politely once, I may have time to repeat that once or twice more, then out come the big guns.
On a public mailing list or similar I might be more blunt: linking to past discussions in the first instance then jumping to DickCon1. On a public group the discussion is taking more than just my time and might encourage others to chime in and drag the matter instead of letting it close.
And again: the suggestion of “banning on sight” could have been intended as an attempt at humour by way of hyperbole, rather than the direct “off you fuck” that was felt. Communication of sentiment online is very prone to errors like that.
> Communication of sentiment online is very prone to errors like that
This is exactly my point: given that online communication is low bandwidth, why are you attempting humour with someone new, who is therefore very unlikely to get it? (And, given Drew's track record, I find it extremely unlikely that he is just trying to be funny, but that's a different matter.)
Also, your point about not wanting to spend more time on a discussion than is necessary, you can simply... not. Say not interested, post a link to a FAQ that covers your stance, and simply don't engage. You don't need to be offensive. You don't need to be worried about people dragging the matter. It's just a discussion.
It was on Libera in a public channel. It wasn't humor. I'm very used to the IRC crowd and recognizing even the cringiest of humor tactics. There's also another person on this thread now who Drew reacted similarly on a mailing list.
I will be very surprised if Drew isn't called in by his communities at some point.
