Clinton, whether you call it a fight or asking questions, it amounts to the same thing. You are trying to prompt a response in someone; they are responding as they see fit - in this instance, no response. Each of you have different preferences; you are trying to persuade them to change. Maybe I should have used the word battle rather than fight. And I reiterate, the repetitiveness is boring. Maybe it's time for a change of tactics.
"It's simply one convention of the structure of internet discussion" Dog, you, of all people, should know better than this. 1) You can't lump the internet together as if it's one thing. Generalizations are ALWAYS wrong. 2) this isn't your average group of internet lusers. r u shure th1s 1s b3tt3r? Granted, we're not in high school anymore (*please* don't remind me how long I've been out), but isn't that all the more reason to give up the "I know you are but what am I" mentality?
"I am honestly curious how and why people would let this sort of thing get under their skin at all." Go out and find the book "Unlimited Power" by Anthony Robbins. In there is a section on state and triggers. Read that section and you might then understand. I agree with you in that no one else can hurt you, but there are a dozen or so names that have become triggers for me. I now recognise them as such, but before I read that book all I knew was that just seeing a particular name, not even reading the post, would make me feel worn out.

Kendall - hi back at ya.

Susan, yes, the old threads are a resource. But they are *not* ever-growing. They only way for that resouce to grow is for new threads to be valuable as well. It is the personal touch I miss, but not as you see it. Honestly, I couildn't give a rat's ass less how politely someone creates a link. What I'm looking for is personal insight and/or experience. If I were to go visit, say, Kendall, and I asked him a question about guitar, he might just walk to a bookshelf, pull out one book, hand to me and say, "Everything you need, and then some, is in there." Or he might engage in an afternoon of relating stories and jokes, eventually making me choke half to death on my dinner over some particular witicism. The former is the equivalent of posting a link, the latter is the creating of a resource.
Also, when I ask a question it is usually pretty specific. I try to communicate exactly what information I am after before posing the question. If someone posts a link, I really resent wasting the time to read thru the whole reference if it only lightly touches on the subject in question. I'd rather waste the time minimg someones experiences.