The Access Whoring appears to be at an all-time high and it's ridiculously transparent. But there are two other issues to which Jeff alluded that constitute a greater threat, because, if the remain unchecked, they will cause more good people to leave the site.
The first is the use of the site to grind an axe against somebody that you have an architectural "argument" with. I'm a lawyer by education and now I'm a judge, so I'm used to argument. We argue about stuff every day. Sometimes it gets heated. Sometimes you say things you wish you hadn't. But it is overwhelmingly true that we tend to adhere to Shakespeare's famous line about lawyers that they strive mightily but eat and drink as friends. Some of these Merion arguments make it impossible for the latter to occur. And that, to me, has a corrosive effect upon the fraternity.
The second is MHM and everything he stands for. The basic business model is to preach, prescribe and proscribe. Stir the pot. Tell people what they should do. And remind everybody periodically of the "weight" that his opinions have because of his lineage. And then when people dare to disagree or take a shot at his holiness, he claims that the poster had "misread" or "misunderstood" his post. And if it's late enough at night, he throws in some nice ad hominem attacks. Finally, follow it up with the "I'm a victim" b.s.
In a word, Mr. Morrow, you are poison to nice civilized conversation in these parts. Your preaching from your self-anointed bully pulpit leaves you looking like nothing more than a feckless bully. You've ruined more days than "made" days around here. You have a coterie of defenders who must have some sway because you have not been heretofore banished, but it would make a lot of people's days if you would take up your repeated threat to leave our company and I doubt that many would miss your contributions. If golf's last frontier is in the mind, I invite you to have unlimited inner dialogue and keep your poisonous opinions to yourself.