Hi @jrswab
Thanks for this fantastic post. It is right on the money. I got caught up on the fringe of one of these "whale wars" the other day, and it was a big mistake. I didn't dive in deep enough to offend anyone, but point 3 you raise above certainly derailed my blog for a couple of days. While the risk of creating enemies and attracting down votes is real, for me the biggest threat is distraction and demotivation.
This is a really well written piece. I also like the look of some of the other titles in your catalogue so I'll be sure to browse through those as well.
Thank you for the comment! There is a place for some people to take care of this stuff but us small bloggers are not the ones to do so. <3