It feels slightly horrible to admit it, but I'd probably try to be more encouraging/nicer to someone who posted something I disagree with if I thought that pers

It feels slightly horrible to admit it, but I'd probably try to be more encouraging/nicer to someone who posted something I disagree with if I thought that person was very young, new to the topic, female, or other underrepresented group. The "female" part is probably specific to tech; if it were a forum with equal gender distribution (biotech, or say fans of a tv show or something), I wouldn't. OTOH, I'd also be similarly polite to a respected person, particularly from outside the field, who posted something wrong. e.g. if a regulator or most VCs said something fundamentally incorrect, I'd politely try to counter it, but I'd back off rapidly unless the disagreement were really core. All of this is without specific information about the person; there are specific counterexamples. e.g. if pmarca were the VC who said something "wrong", I don't think "back off to be polite" would be useful or necessary; however, he's probably also less often wrong about things.