"Attacking Elias." Apparently, anything remotely critical is now "attacking." This description of what I said about Elias is laughable. I guess the maternal exhortation that, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" is now law here. Oh well. The spirited discussion that made this place great in the past will not happen again here if this is the kind of environment he is trying to achieve.
Please talk to Elias about this. But yes, that was exactly what Elias said in not so many words. He wants discussion of the facts, the ideas, the possible actions, NOT personalities. "Spirited discussion" does not depend on being critical of the PEOPLE involved. Criticism of the ideas, facts and possible actions is quite possible without getting critical about personalities or personal differences. And not that we're supposed to become robots or anything, but that old saw about not saying anything if you can't avoid being critical is a fairly good one. I had to learn that myself, and it wasn't easy... but it is possible.
There is absolutely no way to please everyone, especially in a situation like a forum. So the person we need to please, more or less, is the guy that gives us the forum as a platform to discuss anything at all. If you can't handle that... well, what can I tell you?