“See that no one repays another evil for evil.”
[ I Thessalonians 5:15 ]
This is so easy to understand. It just says that if someone does an evil act, don’t react with yet more evil.
Let’s break it down though. How often have you been angered in IRC, on the phone with technical support, or elsewhere. You feel they’re just being morons and you want to punch them. It happens to me a lot.
Let’s consider this the evil done unto us. We’re being angered by something that we fully disagree with (know better, or whatever). The usual response seen in these settings is to react with further anger. This can come in the form of yelling, flaming, ignoring, or those old fashioned put-downs.
Those reactions are not only unhelpful but they cause the issue to get larger.
Try this next time. Try to understand why the user is making you upset.
In our field, it’s likely that it’s ‘you’ that just went with too little sleep and are too easily aggitated. It’s also possible that you don’t understand their issue well enough to bring it down to a level that they can understand.
Why are you wanting to return anger and evil? Settle down and return something that’s in the spirit of FOSS.