I suspect Max hopes people would learn, but we've got some persistant arguers and an endless procession of newbies, some of whom are probably attracted by the trollery. We've developed a culture of fighting here, and it's like a feeding frenzy - the blood smell only attracts more.

It would save you, Joe, from having to read so many GUEST posts to see who's trolling and who isn't, if all complaints about the way the forum is run had to be sent directly to Max or Jeff. Editing, spam and other established-policy things are fine the way they are, except for opinions being inserted into posts and unhelpful posts in the Help forum.

I'd be all for zapping threads like this on sight, but any policy change of this magnitude should come from Max. I may disagree, but I have a feeling he might not want to do this, and it's his ball of wax.