My last post too, because I too have better things to do.
At no point during this debate did I make any personal aspersions. I simply questioned the appropriateness of a blanket, one rule fits all advice.
As an SEO expert you know that different websites will react different ways to achieve different things.
You rightly point out that on forums, not everyone (including me) has that detailed level of SEO knowledge, and that is why I raise the point that blanket statements concerning metrics can be dangerous.
Regarding Bounce rates;
Forums will inheritantly have a very low bounce rate, simply because every visitor must click on one page just to get an idea or a feel of what the forum is about, how busy it is, and whether or not it is worth going further into. A low bounce rate metric in isolation means nothing.
Sites with Flash introductions will have a very low bounce rate, again, because every visitor needs to enter just to find out what is going on. A low bounce rate means absolutely nothing about the performace of these websites.
This website has an astonishingly high bounce rate, simply because the target customer prefers to get a quote by phone, not online. And I can assure you that they are one of the industry leaders, and it is a top performing website.
Regarding bounce rates affecting google rankings, as far as I am aware the jury still seems to be out about whether google incorporate or plan on incorporating an element of bounce rates into their algorithm. With over 400+ changes to the algorithm last year, my personal opinion is that nothing should ever be taken for granted. A factor that is irrelevant to rankings one year, may be very important the next. Towards the end of last year, a number of the SEO professional blogs were discussing bounce rates and google algorithms. Maybe as a professional SEO you have access that I as an ordinary user do not have to information that proves whether or not bounce rates are a factor in rankings, I don't know.
On forums, knowledgable people post advice, and it is taken and followed by readers, the poster will have no awareness of how the advice is followed, it may applied correctly, or impulsively, or incorrectly. My only issue in all of this is/was that just because a website has a high bounce rate there
may not be an immediate requirement to go out and change it. Not without thinking about WHY you have a high bounce rate. And if I recall correctly, in the OP, there was no recommendation to think about the reasons behind the bounce rate before you started changing your homepage, and that is the reason for my "noise" and "sillyness".