Not sure about the conference bit, but the rest of what he said on that post has some truth to it. The same as if Parish et al had not have come along I dread to think where we would be.
Using the pub analogy. If you went into a pub and people were taking the pish out of you, wouldn't you respond?
You post some zingers yourself. I just didn't think that it was abusive, in fact if that is classed as abusive I think whoever issued it shouldn't go outside for fear of being offended.
I do agree that poster posts a lot of shit though, I just skip past them and any responses along the same lines.