Folks, a reminder that downvotes against introduction posts on the "Welcome" thread are frowned upon. There's nothing in the parent comment that should be sufficient to override that norm.

Yes there is---the rest of the comments that also advertise the book while attempting to shame Vladimir out of downvoting him for allegedly sinister emotional reasons. Making that sort of status challenge can be a useful way to establish oneself (or so the prison myth goes) but also often backfires and also waives the 'be gentle with the new guy' privileges.

People should consider themselves free to ignore thomblake's frowns and vote however they please in this instance. There is no remaining obligation to grant marcusmorgan immunity to downvotes.