Just Another Victim of the Ambient Morality wrote:
> I've been watching this thread intently and I don't recall anyone being
> abusive or even close to it.  Could you site an example?

Personally, I perceived the beginning of Philip's original terse
response as containing a little bit of the holier-than-thou attitude
the OP was referring to:

>> I was surprised to find the following...
> Really? Take a comsci course at uni

That could be interpretted as:
"Are you so much of a dumbass that you don't even know what a hash is?
Try going to school, moron."
or far more kindly as:
"Interesting. What you find confusing actually makes perfect sense to
me. That's how I was taught hashes behave, anyhow."

Blame the impersonal nature of the written word.

(My intent here is not to attack Philip, but instead to provide an
example of how the original poster might have felt that some responses
had a bit of 'attitude' to them.)