When you rail against God for the way things are like a petulant little girl.

When you mention Nazi's or Hitler

When you mention your education or net worth.

I will put some others up as they occur.

When you say you are leaving a thread only to return, you've probably lost.

Interesting. May I ask you to expound on that?

If during the course of an argument one side compares the other to Hitler or a Nazi. It is a reflex position, a crutch devoid of thought and often lacking in any real meaning relevent to the topic being discussed.

i.e. We need ID's to vote in elections. response- You are such a Nazi wanting to control everyone.

Poor grammar usage? http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat5.gif

You lose an argument on Pelican when your posts have so little value, or are so full of vitriol that others block you. At that point, you have lost not only opportunity for intelligent discussion, but also the wonderful drive all night, work all weekend, share the knowledge you will never find in books Pelican comradery that is the most extraordinary part of this site.

angela

Very nice.

Listen to all of the facts. If, based on the facts, you determine that you were wrong, if you can admit it, then you should have learned something. And from a certain point of view, you lost the arguement, but you did not lose.

You can, if you have them present facts. If you see the facts (all of them from both sides) and are certain that your side is correct based on the facts, stop before it devolves to name calling and mud-slinging. Then you won. If you are the name caller and mud-slinger, then you lost whether your point/side of the argument was the factually correct side or not.

The first option is unlikely. Apparently, human nature doesn't work that way.
https://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/06/10/the-backfire-effect/

When you are so thoroughly beaten that you go thread to thread looking for a post of the other guy...regardless of topic...so you can take a personal shot at/insult them.

When the thread go dormant after your last pathetic reply; Oh yeah...

Some folks post so much stupidity that its not hard to find them in other posts (not speaking about any one person in particular).

Yes, but the losing part is he fact that you look for them (not speaking about any one person in particular) whether hard to find or easy...and then can't avoid that personal attack (about their grammar, spelling...or another totally unrelated topic or thread). You could post in a thread about hot water heaters or excessive electricity consumption and they would show up and take their shot.

Fint, is your real name Francis? Not a personal attack, I like and respect you, though the thread you reference is nothing but humorous jabs on word play imo.

Lighten up Fint :)

Nothing humorous about screwing up threads with reasonably important topics (at least to an OP who asked for help/advice) to take a cheap shot a poster. It just discourages people from making potentially helpful posts/contributions.

Some are "word play"...some are outright lies or inferences about another poster or previous posts, etc. All unrelated to the topic at hand...all by folks who have scores to settle from previous threads (typically folks who could not make an intelligent argument about a topic in PARF so they take their shots in OT). They are a loser because they cannot move on from some previous poor performance and see the drive-by as some sort of redemption...and they fit the topic here, "When do you lose..." perfectly. Unfortunately, everyone loses. Excusing boorish behavior simply enables it. They keep doing it because they think they are "winning" because some other fool always joins them in piling on...and there is safety in numbers.

Sometimes they even come back and admit their motives...which were exactly as I described. Personal.

But, although you were referring to a specific thread, I am talking about thread after thread. If it only happened once, it would not be nearly so obvious, nor worth discussing...but, the constant recurrence fits well in discussion of "loser" behavior which is what this thread is about. Yep...maybe pointing it out makes me a loser too. But, I am willing to take that jab if pointing it out might help keep one poster from such behavior...as it might mean that one person who hesitates to post due to such silliness, might decide to do so...and might have exactly the information that someone else needs.

When you correct someone's misspelling in an attempt to belittle them or their point, while using poor grammar or misspelling words.

Oh well, there goes the civility in this thread.

Oh BTW, my water heater heats up cold water to make it hot. Just sayin...

Am I the only one that thinks a simple 'Haha!' from fint would have been preferable to botching up two separate threads?

You leave grammar out of this!

She and granpaw were marries for over 70 years!

Am I the only one who thinks that a simple "Haha, I guess I an a loser" from folks like you who do the same thing as we are discussing would have been preferable to you making this remark? How exactly is my response to someone calling me out by name...like you just did...mean that I botched a thread? Guys like you who take shots at other folks in OT instead of the posting about the topic like everyone else botch the thread. You should leave your PARF disappointments in PARF when you come to OT. I know it is hard not to take that cheap surprise shot here...but most folks are able to. Try it.

Mine heats both hot and cold water. Yours must be one of those new tankless water heaters.