[dhgeyer]

I think there's a lot of truth in what the squirrel says, although I'm not so sure it's anything new. I've participated in fora on all kinds of topics since 1995. The format has changed - it used to be "newsgroups" requiring different client software, but the behavior seems to be about the same. You get mostly people with questions, people of good will with answers/more experience, some accurate information, some inaccurate information, and a few gurus who, at times (sometimes all the time) act like playground bullies. It's always been like that.

I think, if anything, it's better now. Most of the newsgroups were unmoderated, and the behavior was sometimes truly atrocious. Most of the web based fora have some sort of moderators, so people have to at least pretend to be a bit respectful.