The fact that dang responded to this snarky, trolling, needlessly argumentative post with a thoughtful and genuinely curious reply highlights what a very unique person he is, in the best possible way. And I guess my response here highlights why I could never deal with trolls with the firm yet understanding tone that he's so good at.
The idea is to optimize for the community as a whole. It turns out responding to trolls (edit: yes I meant moderators responding, sorry) is good for that. Or at least I think it is.
The other aspect (which is hard for a lot of people to admit) is that trolls often have good points. They're mostly standing up for things that have been excluded by the majority.
Edit: they're also usually not trolls, in the sense of deliberately trying to stir up drama. Mostly they're people with strong feelings who (let's call it) underestimate how they come across to others.
