OK...

I don't spend as much time at the Space Board as, maybe, I ought to, so you folks are invited to refute me - but

Have you ever considered that "Sam" is just frightfully ignorant about matters astronomical, and that all this name-calling about trolls is undeserved, at best?

Yeah, I know - I'm one of those soft, wishy-washy, "benefit of the doubt" guys when it comes to dealing with people (Tom would say liberal, of course). Thing is, I know people like "Sam" - they combine a sincere curiosity about stuff they hear with a complete lack of discrimination about sources - and, sometimes, a genuine learning disability.

Take the eclipse thing as an example. I've had people ask me the same question, and you all probably know a similar issue comes up every time there's a solar eclipse, too: folks make the inference that it's the rare event - the eclipse - that somehow makes the Sun's light dangerous. Everyone has the hardwired instinct not to look at the un-eclipsed Sun: it hurts!. With the light dimmed by the Moon's interference, a lot of people might think it's OK to look, except they hear on TV that they shouldn't... so they conclude, not that the dimming is still insufficient (not having been told that the solar photosphere is not the only source of radiation), but that an eclipse is dangerous in and of itself, or that it changes the quality of sunlight in some dangerous way - so much so, that in extreme cases, they're afraid to be outside at all during one! It's not at all difficult for folks like that to extend the chain of false inference to lunar eclipses - after all, an eclipse is an eclipse, right?

Here's my point: The HabitZone (my personal nickname for it, an admission of my own behavior) exists because of the Space Board. Most of us who frequent the place came there already possessing a certain level of knowledge and understanding about astronomy and other space-related issues, but not everyone does. I think we're doing our cause a great disservice if all we use it for is to exchange information at "our" level of knowledge and understanding (and snobbery) while ridiculing anyone less informed.

You could call it "educational outreach" if you wanted a contemporary buzzword... you could even call it "passing the torch", helping to ensure that the next generation maintains the knowledge and interest we all know is needed. You could also call it being patient and charitable.

So - knock it the hell off, wouldja? Help the kid or ignore him, either way, but think about the lurkers who can see how you treat "Sam" and decide we're all a bunch of self-important assholes.