You know, I don’t really get involved in the debates between “trolls” and Techdirt fans and all I do is read them (most of the time I quickly skip to more insightful discussions).

But take it from me:
I see a few people who post here and who have ideas that disagree with Techdirt (and I assume you are one of them, at least in the context of thread).

What I rarely if ever see from the people is constructive criticism. What I mostly see is name-calling, personal attacks, ignoring the other party’s arguments instead of responding to them and in some cases complete lies and made up facts.
Your posts in this thread are no different and I’m going to support this with a few examples:

“Techdirt is an idealogue blog, plain and simple. Anyone who disagrees gets treated as you treat me: insults, name calling, and derogatory statements about my opinions.”
— You are trying to make a point, which I am fine with, but you offer no evidence, not a single quote from other comments. It just doesn’t persuade me so I see this discussion as nothing more than a verbal fight between you and the other posters. —

“So much for free speech, right? You would rather shout down those who object and exile them from the site, rather than deal with the issues.”
— Now here, as a neutral observer of the regular exchanges between Pro- and Anti- Techdirt folk (or whatever you want to call yourselves), I have to disagree with your assertion. I’ve seen a lot of stuff posted here by the anti-Techdirt folk that was not constructive and sometimes offensive (personal attacks) yet none of it was deleted, removed or otherwise censored. To hear you say that people here are trying to censor you is absolutely not convincing to me and makes it harder to take you seriously. —

“Mike is proud of you. You ate his shit whole.”
— Vulgarity really doesn’t help me take you seriously. —

I was recently visiting another website where I heard the arguments of people who have opinions that are opposed to Techdirt’s, and I found that some people were making really good points and this led me to rethink about copyright and related issues. However, nobody who has been posting on Techdirt has managed to do that yet, so maybe there’s actually a problem with the way the anti-Techdirt folk are arguing.

Now I’d like to clarify a few things:
– I’m not trying to prove you wrong or argue against you. I’m only trying to offer you some feedback, because I think it would be great if we could have constructive discussions on Techdirt and hear both sides’ ideas and arguments. And my feedback is: the people who disagree with Techdirt just aren’t convincing even to a neutral party like me. And it’s not your position that is the issue, it’s the way you argue. Hopefully you will take this into consideration and things will change for the better.

– There are pro-Techdirt folk who do the same mistakes I’ve said you’re doing, however the reason I’m not calling them out is because there are enough pro-Techdirt folk who debate constructively. The issue with the anti-Techdirt folk is that ALL those who post here are not constructive, at least from what I have seen. And before accusing me of bias, please remember what I mentioned above: I’ve seen very interesting arguments supporting your opinions on other websites. Arguments which gave me something to think about. My problem is, I don’t see those arguments or the same constructive debate here on Techdirt.

– Finally, I’m aware that you feel persecuted here and thus it’s normal for you to be quite defensive. However, you’ve reached a point where you no longer even convince neutral folk like me who want to hear both sides of the story and don’t want to be biased. It would be good if you could get over the attacks you are receiving and remain constructive in your discussions so that neutral people could learn from you; but if you cannot do this, then perhaps it’s time to give up and stop posting here – after all, if you’ve become so defensive that you can’t convince anyone anymore, then why keep it up? It won’t achieve anything.