I can only speak for myself, but typically I'll make a single post and very rarely maybe a single followup to a later commenter. If there is an "on topic" disc

I can only speak for myself, but typically I'll make a single post and very rarely maybe a single followup to a later commenter. If there is an "on topic" discussion, the back-and-forth can actually be very engaging and worthwhile. Some of these exchanges are really golden and is why I keep coming back to HN. However, these high value interactions tend to be rare. Unfortunately, many discussions here tend to be fairly low value. Especially those topics that are prone to draw emotional responses from people that are arguably no more qualified to comment other than they feel strongly about the topic (and, yes, guilty as charged). In these cases, back and forth between the already committed serves little purpose and just adds stress to life. I think by simply stating your position and maybe why you think it, anyone really interested will know by that single expression that 1) there are contrary points of view, and 2) it might inspire the undecided to look into matters and draw their own conclusions... and do so with better information than is available from comments here.