Extract is/was entitled to express a view on PDN, whether that...

Extract is/was entitled to express a view on PDN, whether that view is correct (as it happened to be) or wrong is immaterial and beside the point.

The thing that grinds my gears is you shouting him/her down every time an opinion was uttered, and accusing them of being a troll or somehow in the employ of shorters because they disagreed with your own overly optimistic interpretation of likely developments

This is what I dislike most about hotcopper. The groupthink, confirmation bias and open hostility to new and challenging points of view. You really need to learn from this experience or it will continue to happen again and again!