The crap will only get 'holier'

No worries on the political arguments. I know you're a pretty fair guy outside of those threads.

I don't think either is completely lacking plot, but they're both not trying to tell a compelling narrative with deep themes and motifs.

For new things, have you watched much noitamina?

As much as I don't hold SanCom in high esteem (not even moderate), the division in the article... erm, post I linked was catchy enough and served to further the division between "moe lovers" and "true anime fans". On the other hand, I have only met one person with a similar attitude (thankfully). The funniest thing is that MAL says we're about 90% compatible, despite not liking each other too much.

Fair enough. Though it doesn't change the fact that Upotte was utterly bad, unlike the other two~

The plot is relatively good, as in better than what you would expect from this kind of show.

A bit of total randomness: for plotless slice of life, try Acchi Kocchi or A-Channel. Mouretsu Pirates has surprisingly good story (despite the premise), plus dynamic space battles. Definitely worth watching. Kaichou wa Maid-sama! is a bit of a shoujo-type romance, but fairly unconventional. I quite enjoyed it myself. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is one of these few atypical mahou shoujo shows and I recommend it. The same with Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, which is basically a deconstruction of the genre. People praise it a lot, though I consider it slightly overrated.

Speaking of shows that gained a lot of popularity on the internet, there's Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which is basically everything Evangelion is not (on a sliding scale of cynism vs idealism, both series are on very opposite ends).

Where I have said I disliked you and MAL tells me we're only 58.6% compatible....

I wasn't making a clear, two-way connection between MAL compatibility (or at least I wasn't trying to make one), I was just pointing out quite an extreme case of how unreliable this whole compatibility thing is, Of course, the number of series also matters, but 51 is not that little, so I dare say that this shows how useless this number can be only for taking common and rated series into account.

On another note, can you explain Mouretsu Pirates to me? I thought it was pretty terrible at many points with characters and the plot easily being the worst part about the show. It had a good arc or two that were enjoyable, but story never was at any point good.

Hah.
In all honesty, I doubt I'm able to. I found the plot quite interesting, though it might as well have just been high school girls piloting starships, combining two of my most favourite things (not only in anime). I'm a big fan of science fiction and I noticed that the show took care to show details that were more correct than not.
Another reason for my slight bias towards this show might be some slight... tension between Chiaki and Marika, plus what was basically an official couple of (former) high school girls. I'm a proud yuri fanboy, after all.
Characters were colourful, yet not one-dimensional, starting with Coorie and ending with Ririka. Some characters were added alongside Marika, thus making her not the one and only protagonist of the show (though, being the captain of Bentenmaru, she's still in the spotlight). Plot was slightly crazy, but quite reasonable within its own setting, which includes the idea of letter of marque and converts it into quite the intriguing occupation.

Basically, pretty well-made combination of high school girls, pirates and starships, with a little tint of yuri. I don't need much more~

Yack! i like shoujo-ai but the idea of that makes the show even worse in my mind. It'd be more forced than No. 6! I'd also like to think the show would be more blatant about it considering how one of the plotlines was let's risk the universe to save sub-character's lesbian friend. The crew of the Benten was cool, but I thought they got so little development with only Marika and Chiaki getting any worthwhile screentime (as in, to find out more than whatever cliche their character is based on and even Chiaki was a dumb tsundere from start to end).

It was better than my mind because it had a very Star-Trekish feel to it where it was slice of life but in an unusual situation. That's what got to watch it, and I finished because I don't like to drop things I start. The tint of yuri I saw was pretty nasty though. The one lesbian couple was just kinda there, felt very forced with 0 development.

I will put a caveat that I watched it week to week, which is sometimes good, sometimes bad. Makes certain shows easier to get through, others worse.

I'm not sure what is forced in yuri used in this kind of setting. It's just as good as almost anything else.

See, I'm kinda grateful for them even just being there (plus the kiss and even the whole saving thing). This can mean some slight progress for yuri in anime - there hasn't been a good yuri show airing in the last two years (and probably more, I just started watching anime two years ago). Yuru Yuri doesn't count, because other than Ayano's tsundere attitude towards Kyouko, Chitose's fantasies, Akane's obsession and the "tension" between Sakurako and Himawari there's basically nothing there. Well, maybe except (Almost) Rape As Joke.

Of course, I'm not expecting second Strawberry Panic! (which can be basically considered the pinnacle of yuri), but I'm bored of constant teasing and subtexts, so I value a proper couple a lot more than a single bi/lesbian character or oh-so-subtle hints at some residual maybe tension.

And that's where the doujins usually come in~

i can respect that viewpoint. While I still believe it shouldn't have been there and was poorly developed, I can see where you are coming from.

I don't see why Yuri Yuri doesn't count or things like Horizon and Saki (discounting gender bent shows like Koihime Musou and the recent Nobunaga ones) don't count either.