Perhaps, Matt, yet in my experience, especially here on FT, there are seemingly "flamers" and those that simply do not flame, as well as a wonderfully ecletic in between mix. As you well know, I can direct you to many perfectly harmless threads, (rocky, sandy, soil by way of your analogy), that suddenly erupted just as soon as a given person(s) arrived - for some unknown reason!

So it seems to me that while there are threads that are perhaps fertile ground for flames, for some, unfortunately, they will ALWAYS find the ground fertile, IMHO.

Nonetheless, that's not what this thread is about, and perhaps we should go elsewhere, or even offline to discuuss this concept, if necessary, and/or if you'd like to. Again, we do not want to veer off topic and find another highjack victim here! Thanks!