Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but what I never understood is this aggressive pro-active hate campaign against FT. There are series I also don't like, but I respect that other people for other reasons do like the series. There is a big difference between just not liking a series and actively starting hating on it.
I admit and I never stated otherwise that FT is not the greatest manga out there with the most elaborate plot, but it does what I want it to do. A while back someone found it necessary to send me a VM saying that FT sucks and that that is a proven fact. Why doing such a thing? What's the point of it? You can see that too in some of the posts in this thread. It appears that it's not just that they personally not like it, but that FT somehow tarnished their family honour or something. The reality of the situation is that I visit quite a lot of manga hosting sites and FT is almost always at the top of the most popular manga if not in first place. It has over 400 chapters and countless of spin-offs. If FT really would be that bad, then it wouldn't have all of that.
Yes the series has its flaws, yes it's probably not the best manga out there, but I find the excessive hate for it uncalled for and its flaws are pulled way out of proportion most of time. It always appeared to me that they were used more as an excuse to hate on FT rather than being the reason for it.
FT is not a complicated manga, but it's simplicity is what it makes it such a great series. I love OP, IMO the best manga ever, but there have been quite a lot of people complaining lately that Oda has been taking too many breaks and that the story progresses too slowly. Well yeah everything comes at a cost. If you want to have more depth to a story, well then it will have to progress a lot slower and the creator will have to take much more time. That's one of the reasons I love FT as it always goes fast and provides enough visual entertainment. This also allows Hiro to turn and twist the story in the most unexpected ways without hurting the plot as it's not overly complicated. I find that refreshing. Fast, simple and entertaining and there is nothing wrong with that.
Every series has got its haters, but compared to the ones I have seen of other series, those of FT can be quite aggressive.