This is not the best way to convince people that your opinion is correct. In fact, screaming like an idiot on Usenet may go a long way towards discrediting your thoughts and opinions. When all you have to go on is someone's written text, it is hard to tell if they are joking or serious. It is often difficult to tell what a person's mindset was like when they wrote a post. They may have sat down and hurriedly scratched out their opinion, or they may have only been jesting.
Smileys generally indicate that someone was joking.
Leave Bob with his opinion, and go ride your snowboard. Finally, realize that people will always have different opinions. All you need to do is hold your own opinions. If you make it your duty to try and change everyone else's opinion on Usenet, you will not only fail horribly, but you will waste a lot of your time insulting people who you don't even know. The point here is, ignore Flames and insulting posts.