I know most of my efforts are futile because the people I've been at odds with haven't changed a bit, but to merely abandon a debate/discussion makes me think that the opposition will consider that a "victory" for them (that part I don't care about), which encourages them to continue with their extremist behavior and target anyone who disagrees with them.
I'd love nothing more than an environment where debates and discussions can be handled maturely on all sides. That's probably just a pipe dream, but if nothing else, this place is leagues better than the environment on Serebii, where users are actually getting away with trashing 'Iris-haters' (I loathe that term). A direct quote from SPPf: "The people who will complain are the straight up Iris haters who have no lives to begin with. It's ridiculous that those people want her to get nothing. Sounds like a personal issue that they need to deal with." To my knowledge, the user who said that did so with no repercussions whatsoever. Some users here who have a beef with me for the same reason (regardless of their claiming indifference to me) also use that place as a "sanctuary" of sorts to directly insult actual people just for this reason. And I have notified a mod there about their actions (with several screenshots of VMs to prove my claim), which seemed to help to a degree, but obviously Serebii on the whole hasn't changed much. I'm glad I only use that place to post my fanfic now.
I'd love nothing more than an environment where debates and discussions can be handled maturely on all sides. That's probably just a pipe dream, but if nothing else, this place is leagues better than the environment on Serebii, where users are actually getting away with trashing 'Iris-haters' (I loathe that term). A direct quote from SPPf: "The people who will complain are the straight up Iris haters who have no lives to begin with. It's ridiculous that those people want her to get nothing. Sounds like a personal issue that they need to deal with." To my knowledge, the user who said that did so with no repercussions whatsoever. Some users here who have a beef with me for the same reason (regardless of their claiming indifference to me) also use that place as a "sanctuary" of sorts to directly insult actual people just for this reason. And I have notified a mod there about their actions (with several screenshots of VMs to prove my claim), which seemed to help to a degree, but obviously Serebii on the whole hasn't changed much. I'm glad I only use that place to post my fanfic now.