Originally Posted by
judy
This is exactly what I mean. "Still flogging that horse" is unconstructive and impolite. Are you naturally rude and abrasive when you have conversations with people? If your real persona is rude, insulting, expletive-laden, and intolerant of other opinions, then by all means feel free to behave that way. Surely, though, you're not that sort of person-- and if you're not, why would you feel it's socially acceptable to behave that way online?
Forums where flame wars constantly erupt thanks to a few individuals are pointless, irritating, and generally tend to degrade into a bunch of hotheads cussing each other out while more civilized heads just leave, allowing the thing to collapse into a little node of online nastiness.
This forum has been *almost* entirely free of that sort of destructive attitude, and I really hope it stays that way, because for the most part, it's a large group of people who are intelligent, tolerant of others, willing to share experiences, able to accept other opinions without dumping on the people who hold them, and more than willing to help others whose fish may be in trouble for whatever reason.
The few people who tend to flame or who are rude, abrupt, or mean-spirited don't do so often, and I wish they'd do so even less, because it's those few who degrade the image of the forum in the online fish forum world. And that's really a shame, because this is both a great resource and a generally great communiyt of like-minded folks-- and it's one I very much appreciate having.