Oh, I missed this one the first time around, and it's probably a good thing. I would have been right in there with those getting ugly and it would have gotten uglier.

I'm 6'5" and I have had my share of reclining problems.

Normally, I do try to avoid them by upgrading or booking the second exit row (since the first exit row can't recline), but that's not always possible.

One time I was stuck in a middle seat in the middle section of a DC-10 and the person in front of me reclined rapidly with no warning, but probably never reclined her seat again after I actually screamed out in pain by having my knee smashed by the bottom of the tray table. It really did hurt. I also totally smashed the palm pilot in my carryon bag because my foot had to shoot forward so quickly to free my knee.

It's just not always an option to recline. The seats have a recline because there are redeyes and light load flights, but you have to give up some things when flights are full. Assuming we get to return to 2-carryon bags each, you'll notice that the plane can't possibly hold 2 pieces of carryon for every passenger so you don't have an absolute right to that either.

I never recline my seat more than a few degrees if there is someone behind me. In fact, on long duration flights, I do make sure that I only choose flights on which I can be assured of an upgrade to business, and I always book a row with a bulkhead behind me so that my recline doesn't affect anyone else. Even with United's additional space in business, my flight would be ruined if I had to worry about making the person behind me uncomfortable because of my recline.

The golden rule is absolutely the one to follow here. Besides, unless we're talking sleep, it actually makes the ride more uncomfortable, so why is it so important to you recliners?