There is an obvious bias in your judgement of marxist's replies and you assume quite a bit.
I don't see how marxist was being unrepentant - his beef was with the way he got ganged up on - with his replies to Leecs. Did you see the replies in that thread or did you filter them out?
I could also assume that marxist has no idea how ebay functions and therefore he thought the bids could be easily cancelled with little difficultly - after all, he's a kid.
Did marxist seek to cheat leecs? Probably not - seems like a case of youthful inexperience and ignorance.
And no. I'm not saying Marxist should be excused.
I'm saying educate the fella, not push him up a wall and force him to create a thread that requires the same effort as posting a reply. I see a meal treat suggestion up there - I don't care for swensen's but that's a good place to start.
Bias? Similarly, you are giving him too much benefit of the doubt. Works both ways mate. I understand you are trying to be objective in this case, and i do not deny i'm not presenting the other of the case - which you already have.
Let us firstly examine his replies shall we:
"guess im gonna clear up some stuff.
and i believe soft is a friendly,non hostile place.
i asked leecs to bid before asking my parents.and after it waz successful then i told em about it and the price.they took sometime to discuss and consider about it, but they said that what i have now is more than enough.so sorry leecs,im apologetic about this issue."
"i am starting to doubt the friendliness and non-hostility that i thought soft is.i know it makes some of you softies sanguine,but ive apologised and at least informed leecs.why are you people so petty about this?
and yes,im a christian.so what does this have to do with my faith?"
Granted, his first reply was reasonable - he explained the situation, and offered an apology. Acceptable act, i agree.
However, his second post is probably the riled the other readers of that particular thread. Firstly, what has the 'friendliness' and 'non-hostility' soft is got to do with anything - or rather, what was he implying? That he was a victim of the episode and was bullied and forced into a corner by mean evil people in soft who are older than him? How was he ganged up on? To answer this, perhaps we need to look at the replies between the two posts in order to determine whether or not the response (and flak) he received was excessive and unfair. Here we go:
1. Ungauged said: Dude.... You just made quite alot of enemies.... You're still in the wrong.... No sympathies....
2. Deathrash said: WTF... You Should Ask Your Parents First Before You Bid. Poor Leecs.
3. Phanto said: Fag Marxist, Inhuman disgrace. Taste the hostility biatch!
4. Feedback said: IF you can't afford it ... DONT BUY
Just 4 replies. With the exception of Phanto's remark which, unless you have no sense of humour (which i'm pretty sure you do), is obviously made in jest... All the other replies are not excessively harsh, nor are they uncalled for.
While it is an unpleasant experience to be lynched on a public forum, but that is the response one will get if he commits an act that is seen to be morally unjust and distasteful, e.g. cheating or rape. This is human nature, and we are all guilty of that (although i can't say its entirely wrong) at some point or another.
Now let's look at this objectively; if we were to pass judgement on his character before his replies - it is fair to assume that we are only seeing one side of the story. However, he has made his speech - and well, his replies did rile the readers further because he appeared absolutely unrepentant by saying "why are you people so petty about this?". This is because it has nothing to do with being petty but everything to do with the fact that he did something wrong and should jolly well be prepared to face the repercussions of his actions. That particular reply however, does show that he feels indignant because he offered his apology and therefore should have the RIGHT to be excused. Obviously, this does not go down well with the readers of the thread, prompting an even harsher response.
Next, I think you've already pretty much gathered the rejection of youthful inexperience as an excuse or mitigating factor in this case amongst the softies. Here's my take on why:
1. the dude, is 17 coming 18. If 18 years of his life has not taught him simple philosophies in life or lessons such as a commitment means that one has to honour his word, especially when troubling a stranger out of goodwill... then, I'd say he needs to be taught a lesson, the hard way. After all, he has benefited from a good 12 years (at least) of quality education and even that is not enough to teach him something so simple.
2. Is he simple minded? I hardly think so. He has demonstrated the ability to:
- discern and pick out specific models of guitars which are of his fancy; not just pick a block of wood that is called a guitar
- demonstrate reasonable use of the internet by posting, sending pms on this forum. If he is able to do this, he is internet literate - which is the minimum requirement for using the internet.
- able to read; the terms and conditions of use on ebay are clearly spelt-out on the website. One can't feign ignorance on this.
-demonstrate an understanding of how the whole ebay system works; bidding, payment, shipping. of which he managed to respond to leecs before screwing up big time and being very irresponsible.
- you don't need to be a rocket scientist to use ebay. I started using ebay at HIS AGE; and surprise surprise, no negative feedback so far.
3. And as some have pointed out; he is in junior college, presumably year 2 by now. Not that young, mate. In a year's time, he'll be protecting this country with a rifle - in other words, the country deems that at his age, he should be responsible enough to carry out such important duties. Thus, since the country is a mirror of the society's values... society has also determined that he is old enough to be responsible for his own actions.
And, i am pretty sure he is not out to cheat people or harbour any malicious intent of any sort. Perhaps, just spoilt or naive - but this is NO excuse.
I understand perfectly that you are a compassionate person... but sometimes sparing the rod and spoiling the child should give way to some real lessons in the school of hard knocks. in fact, the dude is lucky so far; if he is in the real world...he'll be in for deep shit.