As I noted in the original post, this whole thing started with a conversation with one of my players who agreed with me. So I started a thread to discuss some methods to encourage certain play behaviors. Much of that conversation has been along the lines of whether or not to use mechanical incentives to do so versus non mechanical incentives. While I have a preference against mechanical incentives, I haven't suggested such things were badwrongfun. Nor have I called my players or any theoretical players names or derided them. I have repeatedly noted that this was not a deal breaker. Somewhere along the line I feel like the tone of the discussion turned much more negative than it started.Yeah. I've skipped around, so I haven't seen @Reynard say that he won't talk to his players like some here are saying. Talking to the players seems like the best first step to me.
Such is the way of threads. They usually move far more quickly than game sessions occur, and some people seem to get especially offended if their proposed solution is not immediately hailed as perfect. The fact is we have not played our regular game since I started this thread and even if I wanted to implement some particular poster's suggestions, I haven't been able to.
Again, I think overall the discussion has been productive and interesting and it has certainly given me much to consider. I just don't know how I got to be the unbending villain in all this.