The harsh, harsh world of blog comments

Take a moment — a brief moment — to feel sorry for poor Paul Deignan, Ph.D. Candidate in the mechanical engineering department of Purdue. Last week he went over to Bitch, Ph.D. (a terrific blog) and made a dick of himself trolling. We've all made inappropriate comments before; anyone can have a bad day.

As always happens, Paul got called on it, by other commenters; this only egged him on. By the end his worst comments were deleted, and he was banned, as per the posted policy of the blog. Most of us have the good sense to slink away at that point, but not Paul; he sent a threatening email to another commenter (`Wally', a professor at another institution), who forwarded it on to Paul's advisors, letting them know what their student was doing. When someone is acting obnoxiously while advertising the fact that they are in a program — indeed, using it as a credential — it makes the program look bad. The advisors likely will want to know.

Well, Paul presumably got spanked by his advisors, and now is threatening lawsuits against Dr. B. and the commenter (`Wally'). You can read about it from Paul's point of view in pitiful detail at Paul's blog, where he's already estimating the amount of money he's going to win. You can read more about the whole sorry incident from a more reality-based perspective at Pharyngula, Science & Politics, MetaComments, Buridan's Ass, or Unfogged, Norwegianity, or Corrente Wire.

According to Paul,

My claim is to the statement of fact of sending threatening e-mails and a yet to be resolved question of "spoofing IPs".

Oh, yes, Paul? That's libel, and actionable, is it? Ok, how about this:

Paul Deignan is also ignorant of the law, full of himself, shows every indication of being unpleasant to work with, and — if he is willing to launch lawsuits based entirely on comments on a blog — is likely litigious to the point of being dangerous to hire as an employee.

I expect Paul will now want to sue me. Indeed, I'll keep the following button on my sidebar:

The button is courtesy of Adam Kalsey's Button Maker, in spiffy Bitch, Ph.D. colours. You can make your own there, or use the following HTML:

<a href="http://roamnomore.blogspot.com/2005/11/harsh-harsh-world-of-blog-comments.html">
<img src="http://static.flickr.com/24/61484837_8777a76293_o.png" 
     width="80" height="15" border="0" alt="sue me, paul!" />
</a>