John, I think you just need to keep always in mind that many of the people who post in the opinion-oriented threads are far more committed to saying what they think (and maybe thinking out loud in a thread sometimes to arrive at this) than in listening to one another. I think you have to expect that what you hope to have happen from a post may not be what happens.

There was a good thread about whether people have experienced a change of mind about important issues as a result of participating at Mudcat that was very interesting, which bore somewhat on this point. But there also was a thread recently where people stated very clearly that they come to opine, not learn. I AM NOT SAYING this is true of all, or in all cases even with those who said that. But it IS part of the paradigm here.

~S~