Q:

Is this really how you want it?

Yesterday I answered someone's homework question with pointers as to the subject they probably needed to look into in order to answer the question.  I normally don't even answer homework tags but this one was quite specific about looking for pointers and not a complete answer, so that's what I did.
Someone didn't like my answer so they hit it with a -1 and then proceeded to spam the hell out of it with comments.  The also looked at my history and spammed some of my old answers.  I commented back mentioning the verbosity and trollish nature of their spam attack and I flagged their comments.  I tried to do the right thing rather than get into some long 'debate' with a troll.  What do you think happened?
That's right.  The answer was deleted, I was told to be nice, and my account was suspended.
There'll probably be claims that I'm misrepresenting the facts.  Unfortunately of course the whole thing's deleted so they'll get away with it because otherwise people could look and see for themselves.
Yeah, I'm pretty pissed off and that's where this question is coming from.  Doesn't mean it isn't a valid one.  Do you really want people to be worried that they'll be the ones getting the shaft when they report abuse?

A:

Your answer to C++ Void Function Confusion was really more of a comment.

I believe your instructor wants you to become familiar with references and/or pointers. I would suggest reviewing any recent sections that mentioned these things.

And the comments that followed:

Don't use pointers in C++ for pass-by-reference, that's the whole point of having reference types, so you don't have to muck about with dereferencing any more (a particular problem area for newcomers). But you'll notice I didn't downvote you for that, instead first giving you a chance to fix or explain - see, that's what community is all about :-) – paxdiablo yesterday
@pax: I have heard arguments against using non-const reference parameters. For example, Google advises its programmers to use pointers for output parameters to make potential side effects more clear: google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/… – Gunslinger47 
@Gunslinger47 & @pax - it's a moot and pointless point anyway. We have no way of knowing what the teacher is trying to teach the student. The teacher might want them to use references, as I would (except I wouldn't), or might want them to use pointers. My answer is not about what is best practice, since the question itself indicates BAD practice, it's about pointing the OP in the right direction to answer their homework question themselves, which is actually what they specifically asked for. Pax is just mad. Trolled my old posts after this too. – Crazy Eddie 23 hours ago 
Regrettably, no one ever seems to teach references in basic C++ classes. – Gunslinger47 22 hours ago 
I'm asuming that "Trolled my old posts" means I specificaly targeted some of your other answers, yes? I had to go looking at my history and, yes, I did downvote another of your answers recently (stackoverflow.com/questions/4261589/…) but that was less retribution and more the fact the answer was ludicrous in the context of the question - I even left a message stating why. Seriously, if I was the vengeful type, I wouldn't have left a comment - in any case, SO easily detects and reverses that behaviour. – paxdiablo 16 hours ago 
Oh yes, and I did downvote this answer but that's only because suggesting pointers for pass-by-reference in C++ is bad advice, and I gave you plenty of time to fix it or argue otherwise (which you did, but I wasn't really convinced it was a good argument). I'll be happy to reverse the downvote if that advice is removed, otherwise I'll stand by my conviction that this answer is unhelpful. – paxdiablo 16 hours ago 
And sorry I took so long to respond. You should be aware that it's only the first @Crazy -type name that gets procesed in comments, hence your comment to gunslinger and myself didn't show up in my notifications. I just happened to be passing by here again and noticed it. As to your "mad" comment, you may be right but it's far more likely to be crazy-mad than angry-mad :-) – paxdiablo 16 hours ago 
Wow. Wordy little troll ain't yah. – Crazy Eddie 14 hours ago 
Yes, you're absolutely right. I can see that my meager language skills are no match for the eloquence and wit displayed in your last comment. I guess you trounced me on this one, I'll be sure to be more circumspect in future when facing up to someone of your intellectual stature. (And, on the off-chance that you didn't understand that, it was sarcasm). Feel free to have the last comment, I won't be bothering you again (barring more bad advice). – paxdiablo 13 hours ago 
This answer (and comment thread) are accumulating too many flags from the community. I'm deleting this now, as it is disrupting the community. – Tim Post♦ 5 hours ago edit 

To be honest, I wouldn't see anything wrong with your original answer if it had been posted as a comment.  I do think you played the "troll" card way too early on pax in the comments.  He was clearly just correcting you.
The suspension was probably due more to that fact that you've been warned repeatedly about your rude behavior than to the severity of rudeness on display here.  I'd rate this as pretty mild for you.  Still, repeated warnings with little-to-no effort at correcting your behavior will lead to suspensions.  You can't say you haven't been warned.

A:

Looking in your history and voting on the content found there is an expected and supported behavior. (Thought there is a limit beyond which the abuse filters will cut in.)
Downvoting and commenting on poor answers is not only expected and supported but encouraged.
And you might consider the possibility that your critic is simply right about using pointers for pass by reference in c++. (Thus speaketh a guy who has written a lot of c-with-classes in his time.)

As for the deletion I' a little surprised that Tim did that, but only a little because his other choice was essentially to delete the whole comment thread. But that would have removed pax's correct comment preferring reference types in c++, and I suspect that leaving just pax's comment wouldn't have made you very happy, no?

