The bit about the banquet is a very interesting point. The people I feel sorry for are the ones with innocent (not quite the right word) questions who start the thread. Then the trolls (sorry, but that's the term) jump in, and we all have it out, the thread is ugly, and usually some poor new guy is left there holding the bag with an unanswered question.
I know that some of you see the off topic thing as related to this, but usually threads go off topic mostly after the question has been answered to some degree.
