Given that this is a debate which has threaded its way through much of E2, I think it is then valid for me to post a writeup in the form of a reply.
I will now speak for all of those nodeshellers and softlinkers out there: simply put, I don't think any one of them (or shall I say, us) would mean to imply that there is no use in thinking. But tell me, after reading the thousandth vitriolic screed against, oh, say, organized religion, which consists of nothing more than a shortsighted rant on the brainwashing tactics of the Church, that those nodeshellers don't have a point.
Everyone is entitled to their own ideas. However, you are not entitled to waste my time and nodegel with some piece which, by nature of its unoriginality, adds nothing to the argument.
I don't need you to tell me that the Church brainwashes people (to continue the above example, lest I offend too great a section of the userbase). What I'd love is if you would offer an articulate, well-written piece which actually presents arguments that I have not heard, and thus might make me actually think. If this weren't a prerequisite for a good argument, E2 would be saturated with redundant crap, every thought that someone pursues for more than 3 seconds spewed into the gel.
And no one wants that.
Of course, it goes without saying that if you have a radical idea which hasn't occurred to anyone else, we, the Association of Nodeshellers and Softlinkers, would love to hear it.
wharfinger adds:
Crux accurately reflects our view. If it's already in the database, don't waste our time. Nobody cares about what's "important to you".
This is not negotiable.