Well I thought I had and also your further clarification of “However I am talking about all discussion threads and the interactions between members becoming increasingly toxic in presentation.”
Maybe I should ask increasingly from what point? But if I haven’t understood then perhaps you could explain further and maybe give some specific examples?
Apologies I had forgotten to reply to this.
Firstly it is not necessarily what people say, but how they say it. Rather than reply with “I disagree” and explaining why, they will begin with "What a load of bollox" or 'clueless idiot' etc ie deliberately confrontational.
In the context of many discussions (including this one) it is opinion based and there is very little dependable data and evidence to progress an opinion more towards a fact. This means there is no end point to a ‘discussion’ and it just goes around in circles.
Now before anyone tells me this is all normal on an anonymous online platform then yes it is, but the next stage is the creation of factions. I believe this is where I am noticing a more serious deterioration recently and hence toxic. It ultimately does not matter what the discussion is because if you are part of one faction, you weigh in to support your fellow faction members, but more importantly to attack an opposing faction member even if sometimes you may actually agree with them.
With regard to examples, this thread is now typical. We have a member who has completely lost all reason by saying he thought you were a female and has been banned. Then remarkably two others have committed ‘suicide by Mod’ by saying the same thing in support of their faction ‘buddy’.
What you need to ask yourself is why three people would seem to lose all rational thought processes to accuse you of something which, as Davie has pointed out, has absolutely no relevance to the topic, but is purely a personal unfounded attack?
Now you are going to say it is because you have strong opinions and don’t shy away from giving them etc, but many others can express strong opinions without being chased around a forum by an opposing faction. You maybe need to look at how you express yourself and be a little less confrontational.
Finally in your other post you said I was being oversensitive? I can assure you I am probably one of least sensitive members on here in terms of what people say to me personally. However I am looking at this from the perspective of others who may well be sensitive and therefore not contributing to threads through fear of being set upon. More likely though many just don’t contribute because the discussion is polluted by warring factions. Worse still they too get drawn into the war.
