I just think that whether it's that guy or any other of that sort, if we simply ignore them and carry on as if they and their posts weren't there, that they won't be here long ... I don't mean to imply we should ignore all newbies ... whether a week ago, a month ago, a year ago or more, we were all "newbies" at SOME point ... and as Mag says, once a guy has established himself and built some rapport with the others in the goup, joking in even what might be thought of as a heavy-handed manner is recognized as a joke ...
Frankly, I DID go on that "other" recently closed board some ... but not nearly as much as here because of the nature of too many of the postings ... in another thread, I mentioned having met a lot of regulars on that board in person at our SF/EB Herf last month ... those I spoke with were decent guys that we'd welcome with open arms into this "family", but I thought the comment one of their most prolific posters made to me was revealing ... when I commented that I recognized his "screen name" and had seen a lot of his posts, he laughed and said "oh, yes ... I recognize you too ... you're one of the REASONABLE guys" ... yet here, I'm as guilty as most anyone for "thread-jacking" and for off the wall comments and jokes .. I've defended that sort of practice too, saying it was the nature of normal in-person conversations to take a diversion from topic and go off on tangents and didn't see why it should be different here ... I'll stand by that viewpoint, too ... IMO, there's no harm in a bit of humor or off the wall comments ... I just don't want to see our forum sink into some abyss of plain and simple BS ...
So, as we get newbies posting here, we SHOULD remain cordial to those whose words reveal them to be reasonable, fellow lovers of the leaf who're here for an exchange of thoughts and knowledge related to cigars and accessories, posts on trades and on misc topics such as sports and politics .. I think the best way to deal with the UNreasonable is to totally ignore them ... what they want is to provoke a reaction and to stir the pot ... don't engage them in dialogue ... pretend they just don't even exist and their posts are utterly invisible ... don't take them on, freeze their butts out ... show them how utterly insignificant they and their BS really are by completely ignoring them and the vast majority of them will give up and go away ... the few hard cases that can't or won't take a hint will stick out like the sore thumbs they really are and will be dealt with by Gonz with a few strokes of his magic keyboard ...
