Certainly I did not mean to make anyone feel accused; sorry. I purposely didn't name names or comments; I was just making a general point. To address your poin

Certainly I did not mean to make anyone feel accused; sorry. I purposely didn't name names or comments; I was just making a general point. To address your points: Whatever someone's reasoning, words like 'absurd' create an atmosephere where ridicule and sniping are acceptable, which I think deters more thoughtful discussion. For one, other commenters follow the example and do the same (see my quotes of PG in my other post, above). But also, who wants to put the effort into a thoughtful comment, sharing what they know, when they see that the response may very well be more thoughtless ridicule? It attracts the worse comments and deters the valuable stuff. > the reporting is done by someone who's just trying to grab pageviews cheaply on someone else's bad content I see no basis for this statement. The author could have any number of reasons to post it, including that it's an excellent article in their or in other people's eyes.