My observation is that you have to hang around the forum for a while to figure out when someone is joking around and when what they've posted what was intended to be serious. I similarly wonder sometimes whether my posts could / would be understood differently than intended. I have to say that I appreciate the 50+ for the general decorum of conversation.

This spring I had the pleasure of "crashing" an annual get together of a group of bike forum members who flew to Phoenix for a few days of cycling together. They all met online and only after several years did they meet in person. Very interesting & diverse group of people from all corners of the US and Canada. The cycling was good too.

Back to point - I find "conversation" on the forum a little more challenging than face to face given the uncertainty of interpretation.