That's a pretty selfish but understandable point of view, I'm not saying that he should disappear completely or continue as before though, that's a false dichotomy, there is a third, and arguably better alternative.

Personally I'd like him to understand that not everybody that disagrees with him is out to get him and to become more civil in his online dialogue.

In the end the person he's damaging the most is himself, which is his good right of course, but I think that with very little work on his part that he could amaze us all by being both productive and an easy person to get along with.

I've gotten quite a bit of feedback that Zed in person is the nicest guy which really makes me wonder why he seems to expend so much energy by being nasty to people online.

I think you're damaging yourself with these snide remarks. Your comments are nasty in themselves but you're hiding it under the pretense of trying to improve zed.

I was only saying that Zed does more good than harm. In fact, I don't see him doing any harm (except possibly, as you point out, to himself) unless you're saying that we suffer by not having an easy-going Zed to talk with late into the evening.

This isn't a workplace; you're not forced to interact with Zed. Either you decide it's worth the potential grief, or you decide it's not. I don't understand what your personal stake in his behavior is.

Maybe because people like you run around butthurt and drag your bullshit into unrelated areas on HN? You'll also note that while Zed stands up for himself, I don't see him posting links to his site on HN.

Protip: grow up and stay the hell out of zed related threads if you don't like them.