Unfortunately that comes with the territory. There's alot of people in
any newsgroup who reply to threads just to "hear their own voice" and
are not so concerned with helping the OP as they are with waxing their
own egos.

All you can do is just ignore such posts. If you happen to be the OP in
the thread, if you just politely thank everyone who gives their input
for their time and consideration--whether or not it's helpful to you,
and stick along your original lines of questioning, you'll find that
the next time they look to see what they've stirred up they'll be much
more helpful. "You can attract more bees with honey than with vinegar."

It's impossible for a man to argue with someone who agrees with them
and who says they appreciate them. Remember, "There, but for the grace
of God, go I." If you had lived the same life and had the same
experiences you may very well think the same thing.

Everyone can help out by thinking to themselves "Is what I'm writing
really going to help the person asking?", "Is it going to help someone
reading this?", "Is it just me wanting to tell everyone what a great
person I am with such great opinions?". If the answer to the first two
are No, then likely the answer to the third one is Yes.

If your reaction is "my opinion helps people." Consider if your places
were reversed. People posting to newsgroups are not all as ignorant as
3 year-old children, most of us are grown adults and have our own
opinions and outlooks on life, telling us we're wrong is just gonna
make us feel belittled and more stubborn in our position than ever.

Hope you can get past this drawback, this community's really great if
you can weed out the information you need.

Cya,
Chris