I often wonder how much of the controversy we read about here on HN is completely manufactured by some clever individuals. NOTE: I am not saying the Joshua-Gros

I often wonder how much of the controversy we read about here on HN is completely manufactured by some clever individuals. NOTE: I am not saying the Joshua-Gross-Next-Web-situation is obviously manufactured. I have no idea. I am saying controversy is a great way to drive page views and links. In some cases, those links are valuable to SEO. I like to imagine Michael Arrington, Dan Lyons, and MG Siegler sitting around a room and saying "Ok, what can we come up with as a good excuse to really yell at each other?" ... which is then followed by posts like these (and hey, they're getting another link now): http://www.realdanlyons.com/blog/2012/02/13/hit-men-click-whores-and-paid-apologists-welcome-to-the-silicon-cesspool/ http://www.realdanlyons.com/blog/2012/02/13/hit-men-click-wh... I may be way off. Maybe Arrington is always writing his honest opinion. But it surely happens somewhere on the web. Is anyone keeping track? Is there a website that has a list of all the seemingly-manufactured controversies? That would be interesting.