Well, that's one way to look at it. Another might be to strive to keep the discourse higher. While one person can disrupt a thread, it only works if other people respond to them.
I see several things regarding trader communities.
One, if it's a smaller group of people who create their own boards on someone's server, they don't usually have the critical mass or turnover to be very dynamic. A community needs new faces and perspectives to be really vital.
Two, old timers to the community or experienced traders don't have that much patience for newbie questions. Or certainly, they don't respond with much tact. In turn, newbies jump in without getting a feel for the board, or looking deeper for their question.
Three, people respond to idiots.
Most of these things are generalizations of any online community. However since trading is such and inexact science and because you can never know if one you meet online trades profitably... one's "expert status" is constantly doubted.
I get the sense that some here feel it is their duty to deflate any and everyone. And that kind of sucks when every post has that kind of edge to it. A probing question should be enough. If the member doesn't respond to holes in their arguments, that should be clear enough to temper how much credit you give their posts.
I challenge anyone and everyone who reads this thread to make a conscious effort to raise their level of dialogue on ET. Make an effort to separate the chit chat from the real meaty trading discussions. Be patient time and again with newbies. Make your time here mean something. If you do, you'll see the overall quality raise, and it'll pay off.
André