[Air-l] list behavior

[Christian Nelson]

Another aspect of list behavior I find interesting is some folks' 
tendency to respond to a troll. Why do it? Despite Cornwell's truly 
abysmal behavior on the list, some folks insist on looking for a silk 
purse in his messages, and responding as if he were just another 
internet scholar, and thereby legitimize his presence and previous 
behavior. I've seen this before. I find it bizarre. Can anyone explain? 
Has anyone seen or done any research on this? (BTW, to the list member 
who find's Cornwell's stuff on education and technology so 
groundbreaking and insightful: Its not. It may be new to you, but that 
ground has been broken for some time and is being tilled by lots of 
other folks.)