Originally posted by automorphism I doubt that. If someone posts something on a forum and it gets zero responses, they will just go away.
They can want to punish Pentax all they like, but the future of Pentax and other camera companies just depends on people buying their stuff. In turn, people buy stuff based on how it works for them. Pentax doesn't make a decision to create a new camera because of forum trolls. Now, it might be possible that a troll could negatively affect the Pentax brand image to potential buyers, but typically people consult reviews much more than a couple sentences posted on an already noisy forum like DPR, so a much better response to a troll instead is to write a positive review of your Pentax equipment either on DPR, Amazon, or elsewhere.
Here, I'm just talking about straight up trolls. If someone is engaging in a civilized debate on the merits of Pentax vs other brands, then it could be a good idea to give your two cents as you see fit. However, I only advocate doing that if it's not something that will make you irate or overly bothered.
Unless their purpose is to get reads, not responses.
There's dpthoughts, whose only purpose is to bash Pentax in the comments section of every Pentax-related article.
There's Midwhatever, whose only purpose on the Pentax section was to repeatedly claim that SR slows down autofocus and Canon's solution is oh so much better.
There's this guy spreading libel about me through personal messages and even forum messages, because that's allowed by someone who shouldn't be a moderator.
Do you think they will stop?
The "must punish Pentax by driving away customers" theory, I've read that on the other forum. The driving away being done through gross exaggeration and even untruthful statements. They deluded themselves into thinking they do good for all of us... do you think they would stop?
Then, there's the occasional misguided guy whose only fault is to listen to some... ahem, technically challenged guy with technical theories. For example, the "capacitor" theory. Would it disappear?