[edw519]

It's hard to leave a mischaracterization of your ideas unanswered on a forum where people know you participate.

Yes it is. And here's something I learned by accident...

Many times I have been challenged by something I said. Often a great point, but just as often something totally illogical. I always felt compelled to engage immediately or else I'd look like I was acquiescing to the other.

Then a strange thing happened. I got so busy that I could only visit a few times per day. So when I returned to a thread I had commented in, I was challenged, and others had responded instead of me. And their responses were often much better than mine would have been.

So now that's my default. I let others respond for me simply because I'm not here. And I've been very pleasantly surprised. For every jerk, there are 10 people ready to downvote or comment.

There's a natural tendency to stick up for yourself, so it's tough to let it go and give others a chance to do it for you. But give it a try anyway. Have faith in this community. When you're too busy to respond, we've got your back.

[mhartl]

I second this. Recently I posted a story about a project I'm working on (Rails Tutorial, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1138149), and someone made a trollish comment I felt obliged to rebut. I was pleasantly surprised to see other HN readers come to my defense with comments and downvotes. I did end up responding, but I probably shouldn't have, and next time I'll probably sit on my hands and see how it shakes out.