If I had to guess, I'd say the 'tone' has taken a turn, and for the worst. A couple recent examples. A few days ago, on a real estate forum, I posted that my spouse and I had just sold a house. One poster responded with a single sentence, "how much u lose ?" That poster actually was you, and, in my opinion, it was a bit on the nasty side, by assuming from the get-go that we had to have lost money, could not have possibly made any. To me your tone was, another chump who lost his shirt. And, we're just dying to know how big the loss was. Inquiring minds want to know. A nicer, more civil response might have been, "Congratulations, hope you did ok. Anything to share with how the sale went?" Today, also on a real estate thread, I was asked a legitimate, direct question by a poster. I usually try to respond when someone asks me a question, unless it's not worthy of an answer, so I posted a reply, giving some information but also telling the poster that what he had asked me about--leasing--I didn't have any personal real estate experience with. Along comes another poster being nasty for no reason, posting to me, "If you don't know anything then why post". Well, to politely answer a question someone was waiting to have answered, as best I can, that's why. I think there is more stuff like this now and it's really unnecessary. Also, a lot of bickering back and forth with tiresome, personal insults that are boring to page through when you are following a thread that interests you--sometimes there can be two or three pages of just insult after Insult, back and forth, serving no purpose. I enjoy the interesting back and forth discussing and debating an issue, and the sharing of information, with other posters--that's really a big part of the fun of the Forum. I try, as do I think the majority, to keep the focus on the topic, not on someone's age, height, lack of height, sexual skills, lack of sexual skills, athletic ability, lack of athletic ability, country of origin, looks, lack of looks, ad infinitum. Sometimes I slip--I recently questioned a poster's reading retention--but I do try. The back and forth personal bickering and being uncivil for no reason that has crept in isn't fun--at least not for me.
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