I just don't wish certain people to know when I am actively on a site.

Interesting.

I've heard others say similar things before. About getting nasty PM's and such.

For all of the forumizing that I've done over the years, I've only received one nasty PM -- and that one wasn't on this site.

I don't typically debate via PM. I've had a few friendly discussions that way, but never a fight.

My fights are conducted in the clear. And I don't use silly tricks like clone accounts; sending whiny PM's to mods when I don't like something that someone else has said about me; or attempting to invalidate someone else's opinion by suggesting that they don't have a right to speak.

I.E. -- "You don't have a gallery, so you can't say anything negative about someone else's art." It's a variation on the old leftist "chicken hawk" argument -- "You didn't serve in the military; therefore you aren't allowed to have an opinion about the war".

Such reasoning is equally ridiculous either way.

It's an attempt to attack the individual rather than the issue. In that way, one can avoid having to deal with the matter head-on. Just suggest that they don't have a right to speak for some reason or other -- that way, you won't have to listen to them say things that make you uncomfortable with your own assumptions.

If listening to ideas that challenge your own bothers you -- then take the simple expedient of scrolling past the posts. As has already been suggested.

Once again: ignorance is bliss.

Something To Do At 3:00AM