Re the brand war debate, I see both sides.
In threads discussing the particulars of one brand it can be irritating when someone pops in with "don't forget about brand X because it does A, B, and C better!" it can sound like a sales pitch. OTOH, in most of the threads it's appropriate to discuss any brand, and adding a similar comment is clearly helpful, though it's usually worded more like, "I chose brand X because it does A, B and C better and those are important benefits to me." And IMO the difference in how one words a response is not trivial to setting the tone of the post...
The other aspect is number of users of a particular brand... In our case, about the only regularly vocal Sinar user is Graham, so he unfairly becomes labeled the poster boy for them. By contrast, we have maybe a dozen regular vocal Phase users, so when they speak it (again unfairly) usually starts to sound like a fan club. But the reality in both cases is these folks are just trying to share their opinions toward the goal of helping others, AND THAT'S WHAT WE'RE ALL ABOUT here at GetDPI!
I think every regular poster here behaves very well, especially when compared to other forums, and personally I do not want to see that change --- EVERYBODY is entitled to share their opinion and be treated respectfully even when there is disagreement. In the end, I think we'd all agree on the same goal: it is the image that counts and how you get there is less important than what you got. But to get there, we all want to choose gear that allows us to get there as efficiently AND as enjoyably as possible. So to use a weak analogy, just like when getting to point B in our cars, some of us want to slide through the turns in the latest sports car while others want to cruise casually in a discontinued classic with the top down while still others want to take the boulder-strewn dirt bypass in an SUV...
And from my point of view, it's all good