What happened in the thread that made Sony pull it? Besides a bit of name-calling it was a pretty ordinary discussion.

When someone takes a discussion from a rant to a flame (IOW, personal, insulting, or inflammatory language), Sony will usually remove it, as I think they probably should.

They did the best thing by removing that thread....
Nothing wrong with complaining, but then he began disrespecting
the forum posters and even insulting the tech-support.
He was a waste of everyones time and took his ranting too far.

I don't think he was the greatest sinner in that thread.

There was a lot of totally unnecessary name calling by the many.

When people work around the clock to make something work and they finally have to give up, it's understandable if they get very frustrated and a bit emotional when trying to communicate their frustration.

It happens with a lot of products and vendors, but I've seen a steady deterioration of civility online over the last 10 years especially (well before what is now being called "The Great Recession").

I've been online for 25 years, and I don't recall it ever being this way on Usenet.

Schools should teach civility, and the "why" of it (although I don't see schools spending a lot of time on "why" in any subject).

A long time ago, schools taught both knowledge and wisdom. Today, the knowledge has swollen to the point where there is no room for the wisdom.

Wisdom is about how to use the knowledge that we have and that which keeps pouring in. Without wisdom, we end up adrift and a lot less happy. Come to think of it, I see today's society (worldwide) as quite adrift with no sense of direction. We're "just going with the flow," no matter where it takes us.

For a long time, churches provided a weekly course correction. Today that is more rare, probably because so few of the churches teach the "why" of it, so people don't believe it. Younger people especially don't relate to fire and brimstone, so the message falls on deaf ears.

Why not lie, cheat, and steal? It sure seems convenient.

"Just don't do it!"

"It is forbidden!"

"It says not to in these here Top Ten Tips from the Caucasian Senior Citizen depicted on our walls!"

But why not, indeed?

Kids don't tend to follow a what without a why, at least when the commanding person is out of sight.

When we don't know fully in our hearts and heads why or why not to do something, we do things that have already been found by millions of people over thousands of years to lead to problems later.

Laws can't cover everything.

Los Angeles has 42,000 local traffic laws, but people can't relate to them all, so they do what they, um, think is right.

The Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," still stands as one of the most simple and effective suggestions for how to live a happier life.

Perhaps Sony could have a separate sticky at the top of each forum with just the Golden Rule.

Who knows, it might help a little bit.

Peace.

Oddly enough, Dungeons and Dragons made me think a LOT about the distinction between Wisdom and Intelligence when I was a kid. You can get it from all sorts of unexpected places.

As far as my Yahtzee brother goes, he seemed like one of a tribe of screamers in this business. You deal with them on occasion, they surround themselves with people who can cope with them, and you can find them by the trail of ground tooth dust they leave behind.

Age and experience doesn't really matter much when you act like a wretched piece o' work. Apologizing for mistreating the "wrong" person misses the point. You shouldn't mistreat people.

Rob Mack

That's today's mantra: "I take full responsibility and I apologize". Now everything is alright so we can do it again.

Lynn

Maybe that because there are no consequences to motivate one to change
Today the victims are the ones paying the consequences

Gee, I quess I miss the entire thread.. ;-( spend the last 3 days at my daughter's software tournament in wireless hell ;-(

Not directly On Topic, but related to politeness and civility...

In a few "talent show" shoots we've done at local schools recently, the principal introducing the show tells the audience that they've been working on getting students to applaud "with their hands, and not with their voices".
Then the principal asks the audience to try it -- the students all applaud enthusiastically but politely.
Then the show starts, and when the adults see their kiddies come on stage, the adults start yelling and screaming...