In response to "Wait, what? Where does it say we're an alternative to relational databases, or MySQL?" you responded: "The whole article is a comparison to relational databases."
Sure sounded to me like that was an answer to his question, and you were saying the author is saying CouchDB is an alternative to relational databases by saying it is a comparison.
I obviously wasn't trying to define what a comparison is, I was just giving a reason FOR this particular comparison.
