I don't consider the posts in this thread to be intense criticism relative to many of the flame wars here, nor do I think that the choices are lots of criticism

I don't consider the posts in this thread to be intense criticism relative to many of the flame wars here, nor do I think that the choices are lots of criticism or zero criticism. From what I've seen, it generally seems like intense criticism on HN is directed at attention seekers irrespective of their celebrity. I don't find this to be a particularly attention seeking post, but nevertheless RMS has engaged in a fair amount of attention seeking behavior in the past. At any rate, the views being most criticized are actually critical of others anyway, including the one about ties.