I know what you are saying, but it corrupts it in our favor. When one side posts researched material and the other responds with ignorant sneers, guess who looks better in the end?
The moderator who tends the garden?
Let me put that another way. Too many Catholics and others may be put off by the hostility of these out of control threads. Some have admitted as much. Fair moderation can keep things on a fair playing field. Expecting one side to be under constant assault and yet remain so is unreasonable.
Exactly! That's why I recommended some self-policing measures earlier on. If we don't let our separated brethren get under our skin and make us stoop to the same level of argumentation they all-too-often employ, we can't help but enhance our cause. If they want to run negative "shadow threads" running against our subject matter...let them! We will simply have one or two thorough, researched, responsible rebuttals early-on in their threads and then just ignore them thereafter. A comparison, by anyone interested, of our threads and those of our non-Catholic friends will, I am sure, yield impressive apologetics and informational results in our favor.
I really wish we'd get together and do this; it's nearly impossible to wade through all the dreck to get to the good posts these days! It's even harder when most of us are at work. Why don't we give ourselves a break here - both posters and lurkers? We regain our collective sanity, make what we have to say FAR more comprehensible to those who WANT to hear it, and, doubtless, God will thank us for it, too! What a deal... ;-)