"Ask your plumber" doesn't seem to violate any conventional form of etiquette that I'm aware of.
It's the humor (albeit dark) that ensues that sometimes gets the newbies riled.
I said it there, if that kind of humor gets to you, I can't imagine you've been on many job sites.
I think the underlying frustration is in the fact that people have come to expect any forum with the word "plumbing" in it is a place where you can expect answers to questions you wouldn't ask any old plumber in the real world.
It's no more fun for us than the "how much?" questions that the other trades have come to redicule.
Having personally lost more than my share of work to unlicensed "handyman" services or "gc's" that fly under the radar, I certainly am not up to offering them help to complete the work they take from us in the first place.
Double-A, I think the major difference is the internet.
It's a whole new ballgame starting a new plumbing business now.
When you were just starting out, I suspect there was no where near as much interactive advice at the click of a mouse as there is now.
Another forum I know of features homeowners entering with full home diagrams or boiler schematics and a list of eager "plumbers" who review them and advise them on how to go about it, all for free.
What first lured me to CT was the fact that DIY'ers were turned away, and done so humorously...it seemed like a place to come and finally let down your hair without having to constantly have to re-explain why offering free advice on modifying a gas valve may not be such a great idea over and over and over again.
WInning friends, influencing people?
Sure, the right people.
The ones who defend their "right" to free info are almost always the ones doing something they shouldn't.
I respect the fact that CT had the integrety to see these things from the view of a tradesmen, and didn't succomb to the overwhelming popularity of DIY, home flippers and HGTV groupies.
Nathan seems to have had a great concept, and stuck to his guns to preserve it.