WOW!! I "agreed" with you twice in this thread!! Something good came out of this lost thread!!That is a common problem on forums. People sometimes think something was meant specifically for them or directed at them, when it was actually just a general musing being added to the discussion. A post appearing right after one of mine does not mean it was addressed at my previous post. The opposite happens on forums too. Sometimes I'll be typing a response to a post and think, "nobody else is awake and posting to the forums at this hour, so I don't need to quote the post I'm responding to because it will be obvious since my post will follow that one." But by the time I finish typing my response and hit POST, three other posts slipped in there ahead of mine! So all context is lost for my post. And sometimes I have responded to a post, everything looked good, but then the mods removed the post I had responded to - probably for the same reason that I responded to it in the first place. And then my response is left there hanging, and others reading it later wonder what the heck I was babbling about since all context has been removed. I think it would be much preferable if the mods would modify the text of the errant post to say "post deleted by moderator" rather than totally deleting the post.
There are lots of different ways that our posts can get misinterpreted. Quoting at least a few words from the post you are replying to helps. That's why I quoted Pearl above. It was not that I was responding to Pearl directly, but I was responding to the idea that she introduced. But even that is not guaranteed. Had I said something offensive in this post (I hope I haven't!), then Pearl might rightfully be pissed about that thinking that since I quoted her I was responding directly to her. But I am responding to her idea, not her personally.
Forum communications are fraught with peril and chances to be misunderstood.