You are mature in admitting that.
That is true. There are times when as board members, we post things just to "sting" another member, and I guess that's the nature of the internet. However, this thread is quite the stage for the OP's initial position to be relentlessly attacked for no reason other than a conclusion which does not fit that of his accusers.
There are 40 pages....40....where certain members have flamed mocked, and tried to destroy this member. His thoughts...his ideas--which have nothing to do with clinical analysis. Long past it--and the point where they should have exercised their greatest message board power: leave the thread behind. For if we are to believe the thread creator is so wrong/"stupid"/trolling/a hater, etc., then such a hardline judgement should have concluded--as early as page 2-- that there was no point in trying to convince the thread creator that his premise or associated points were all in error.
That did not happen, as some could not control their vindictive nature to claw at the member (knowing full well their posts were not constructive) because he has a view which does not meet the approval (not that he needs it) of his accusers.
Just imagine: if all of the self-appointed enemies of the thread creator bailed on page 2, or ignored the OP from the start, there would be no drama, flames or chaos.
I guess this is true. People could just not respond to the op. So, they / we share the blame. I guess it's our nature to defend our favorite players.
But the op is not innocent also. There is a difference between arguing that Fed is not the goat because of the h2h and attacking Fed and his Fans.
Every thread he starts is to rattle Fed fans and to discredit Fed. He is posting bad pictures of him. He is calling him crybaby. He is saying Fed in his era beat a bunch of girls. So he now discredits all other pros.
He admitted being ignorant that he didn't watch Fed in his prime or tennis before Fed. Also that he loves to rattle Fed fans and get emotional responses from them.
So the op is also to blame like others who get drawn into such discussions.
But I don't see any problems with this. We all sometimes say too much. But this is just internet and only tennis, it's not like it's a matter of life or death.
The main problem here is that we only see text. We don't see the body language or intonation in posts. And that is like 70% of communication. So people don't understand each other well.
I mean a lot of times, I joke or use sarcasm and I'm labeled as a hater. I can say that Nadal was in a weak clay era because he didn't beat multiple RG champions. But this is mostly for fun and to point out that is why Feds opponents also look bad, because he was too dominant.
I can say for fun sometimes, that Laver had weak competition during his CYGS. But this is for joke. Just debunking any weak competition theories. Of course if he was this dominant, nobody was able to challenge him. A lot of time there is miscommunication problem than anything else.
My point is that a lot of times people here don't understand each other very well. Because we see only text and not sound or body language or emotions.
This is the problem with message boards.
But hey, nobody is forcing us to be here. We can walk away or don't respond.