How would we know how to recruit new mods if it were?

yeah I don't get the surprise here.  People don't like the rumors they're hearing.  Since that's all there is to go on at the moment then the nextbox is getting a lot of hate.  Seems pretty rational.  How much stake people should put in rumors is debatable, but since that's basically all we have to go on now and the bulk of the rumors have been negative the nextbox gets a lot of hate.  

This is the smartest thing ive read this entire thread.

I agree but the "negativity" is the Microsoft fault to not reveal anything yet... that's can works for good and for bad... we have to wait.

It should be discussed. Nobody is denying that. You shouldnt let it make you hate a company though.

To throw a bunch of hate at a company or a product because of rumors is quite frankly pathetic.

yeah, I agree it is pathetic. But comments like "if this is true, Microsoft won't get my money" are completely justified and are more "what ifs" than just plain hate comments.

Its completely deserved from my point of view.

I am their customer. I bought the Xbox and the Xbox 360 and i am extremely pissed off at Microsoft for treating their customers like crap.

Microsoft gave up on the hardcore during the last couple of years. They showed us the middle finger once they already had our hardware money and went on to make terrible Kinect games aimed at the average consumer. On top of this Xbox live online play remains a paid service that isnt and never was worth the price and to top it off their hardware, in case the 360 became faultier than ever. They got no games, they got no service and they got no hardware and above all they spit on our faces and think they can fools us again.
Lets also, not forget how they ruined Rare, a quality studio and proceeded to ignore all their IP's. Why did they even bother buying them?!

So yes, i think negativity is justified and Microsoft might get whats coming to them. They became arrogant, just like every gen winner tends to be. I look forward to seeing them fail next gen and learning with their mistakes. It seems to have worked with Sony. Its Microsofts turn.

The problem is that people like you don't want to buy the nextbox anyway but still would post 'if this is true, Microsoft won't get my money' because you hate microsoft that much.   Do what you want next time when some Sony fan complains why gamers don't like sony fans I just post your hypocrit post what Carl has showed us.  If Sony fans really don't want to see the hate them they should have got rid of you a long time ago... 

It's partly the bad blood from the past 3 years or so. Also its been a year straight of the same rumors so they are a little more credible than your average joe speculating. I still don't think they'll have the bad stuff but I can see why people believe it. Also its spread to the mass public as I've seen a lot of casual gamers on Facebook and IGN acting like its been confirmed. I feel like its the kind of thing that'll stick around even if they deny it on the 21sf because people are stupid.

We're living a Golden Age for trolls right now.

Since there's nothing confirmed for the next Xbox, trolls are free to take any rumor they can exploit and run with it. They won't get moderated for it because "who knows it might be true".