I pray (a rare thing!) that this is my only foray into this thread. I've been on enough forums to know not to get attached. I've worked up quite a number of posts, but I do not want to be "a regular here." That is developing a connotation that I don't want to be part of.
There is a very strange social dynamic here, compared to many other forums. People seem to treat the forum as family. Short of illness or death, I do not care if any person comes, goes, or throws a fit about leaving for the 10th time. There is a thread weekly about people not coming back. It gets old, since they almost always come back. It really is a attention ploy when the poster is not getting their way! No single person makes the forum (well, Chaz excepted, I suppose) so I do not care if any person stays or goes.
If it starts getting to be too much, just take a step back, don't visit, or only open picture threads.
The response to Richling is actually still bothering me. A narcissist? Perhaps, but what does calling him in this, or any thread serve? Just because you (in general) do not agree with method "X" does not mean that others don't. Clearly at least 3 incarnations of one person does.
If you want to fight that kind of thinking, you HAVE to understand it. Why does this person think that it is ok to train that way? In some cultures, dogs are just food. In others they are Paris Hilton's dog. Most of us will fall in between these extremes. Most people here have a VERY narrow view on it. In the scheme of things, the difference between a halti harness, a prong collar or a clicker are effectively the same to most dogs, at least compared to a baseball bat or dinner fork, yet we still argue over that for days.
If someone really does have strongly held beliefs contrary to what the "general forum opinion" is, it is going to take more than a couple forum posts to make them change their minds. Find out why they feel that way and address those reasons.
There is no reason to let it get personal. If you attack one of those members unfairly (yes, you can unfairly attack an animal abuser/a puppy miller or negligent owner) they will stop listening, and the battle to change their minds is lost. The first person to loose their cool can do this. This means that those conditions will still prevail.