To clarify, I didn't mean to say you were a pessimist, or even that I'm an optimist, just that I prefer optimism in this scenario.
I actually do regularly see rude comments, for what it's worth. We may have different thresholds for what we consider rude. I glanced through the comments in that search, they seemed to be responding to a much higher level of toxicity than what we're discussing, and they're escalating the situation. I don't think nitpickers are trolling or flamebaiting. And to be clear, I'm not suggesting we don't flag comments, I agree that's a critical function to the community.
I think the crux of it is this; if explaining to people the problem we have with their behavior and asking that they change it never worked - why would we be having this conversation? Surely when you asked me disengage in this type of response, you thought there was a reasonable possibility of convincing me?
The main thing I want to convince you of is to flag this type of comment - a thing everyone should do! The engaging (or not) is more practical thing - avoiding the risk of a giant thread of meta sitting at the top of a submission to the detriment of actually interesting discussion. Since everyone loves meta and bickering, this happens quite a bit. If the comment is safely at the bottom of the thread, engage away. I sure can't seem to help it. It just does a lot less good than flagging (which is not just for trolls and flamewarriors).
I actually do regularly see rude comments, for what it's worth. We may have different thresholds for what we consider rude. I glanced through the comments in that search, they seemed to be responding to a much higher level of toxicity than what we're discussing, and they're escalating the situation. I don't think nitpickers are trolling or flamebaiting. And to be clear, I'm not suggesting we don't flag comments, I agree that's a critical function to the community.
I think the crux of it is this; if explaining to people the problem we have with their behavior and asking that they change it never worked - why would we be having this conversation? Surely when you asked me disengage in this type of response, you thought there was a reasonable possibility of convincing me?