I believe this has been brought up before, but why are these discussions accepted as part of 'dev'? Most of these conversations end up over time to be the Mark Twain "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated" type. Given the unique controversial nature of flash, should we have a 'discussion' or 'opinion' section like the Wall Street Journal does?
I fully endorse the discussions about Flex and Flash death, but I don't see how they are part of development. I'd rather subscribe to a op-ed thread and read it there. I believe the 'spirit' within the group is that these conversations will decline over time, but I personally would rather see them compartmentalized and focused. In engineering, there's a wide chasm between negative feedback that is intended to lead to constructive strategy and action, and negative feedback that is rooted in uninformed doubt. I don't feel that the source of discussions are intended to contribute to development, but rather indulge in speculative fear. That being said, I have 4.9 installed and would like to help out, don't have a lot of time to start with. At this point I'd think I'd be better off with helping docs than bugs, let me know how I can help.