What do you do about someone who is just being an @ss?

Question

In the comments to my answer here: https://fitness.stackexchange.com/a/3018/879

The guy @Merritt is posting comments that are pretty asinine. (note: I added the emphasis)

Oh and thanks for the recommendation for that book, but I think it's a bit below my current comprehension level.

Stuff like that isn't useful. While I personally would love to point out the fallacy of cherry picking exceptions to attempt to hold it up as the rule, that wouldn't be constructive--particularly for the person who originally asked the question.

Answer 1

At first I was reading that comment as the book was at an advanced level beyond what the user knows. Now that I read it again, I see how it can be interpreted as "this is beneath me."

Civility and politeness is expected here on this site. This is stated in our faq. We are here to learn from each other, and everyone should be tolerant of others.

I would continue doing what you are doing. Your reputation should speak for itself. Whether people agree or disagree with you, you currently are out highest reputation user. You have written a lot of good things on this site with evidence and facts supporting your claims.

You aren't obligated to respond to users. If there's an issue, you can flag the comments as Ivo stated.

Answer 2

I suggest adding the constructive part of your comments into your answer, as a way to silence future critics, after which I'll purge the comments.

If in the future there are any further complaints about this user (or any other user really), please flag their posts and we'll contact them privately to warn them to try and be friendly

If a user fails to improve, then suspension may be in order, but we'll have to see how it goes