Originally Posted by chasm54

I can hazard a guess. There were fewer posters here years ago, and they became accustomed to one another, and to the idea that this forum belonged to them. But to incomers, it felt more like this:



And they - we - tended to say what we thought, as opposed to what others might wish us to think. And some of us come from environments in which differences of opinion are not regarded as impolite, but as part of the business of being alive. Sorry about that.