How can you click on the name of someone you don't know exists? You only currently know about him because I told you about him in this context. If you visited the original thread, you would not have known he existed, and there would have been no name to click on.

You seem to be blinded by the specific example of Grendel, let's take it to an abstract.

When republicans visit a democratic convention or vice versa, imagine if they were just blocked from entering the building (which they are, usually you have to be a registered democrat/republican to go to those things). This creates a sounding chamber for all democrats to think democratly and all republicans to think republicanly.

Now imagine if you didn't know the other party existed. Let's take the Mendelssohn party for example. It comes around, gets blocked at the door from all political debates, and never reaches public knowledge that the party even exists or what its ideals are. I, the average person, can't just go to the Mendelssohn party's homepage if I don't know that the Mendelssohn party exists.