What's happened to this forum?

cdepast wrote:
sadly there have been a couple bad apples that have driven away forum regulars. Everything is a cycle. As attrition takes place, new members will replace the old.

This is a valid point. We have seen this happen right before our eyes - I recall not too long ago a thread made by someone who usually just lurks on the forum. He did nothing wrong and was met with a nasty reply by someone almost immediately - and to the credit of the majority of the people on the forum, people expressed their outrage about the nasty post.

That is just one example, though. This happens time and time again. Someone states an opinion, someone disagrees and then the mud slinging starts. We have all seen it. And it usually is just a couple of bad apples that are doing it (not always the same ones). I know that the MOD team does their best to stop this, but there is really only so much they can do as there is so much going on here. Instead of discussions, we often see mud slinging and bullying. It scares away potential new contributors, and some of the older forum members have gotten to the point where they are so tired of seeing this and/or being the target of this that they feel they have to leave.

I think that we all need to remember to respect each other a bit more. No single one of us is better than any other member - that includes EVERYONE. We all have valid opinions whether others agree or not. If we keep these things in mind and stick to discussion and having fun rather than belittling, bullying and harassing then people will start to come here again. We may even see some old faces return.

Themanisbacknick wrote:
I don't normally post on this section but I think it's still the same a lot of threads being made regular. But the forum in general is quite well on Ot anyway but it will come good in the end

I think Nick also makes a good point. People come and people go - such is the nature of a forum. Circle of life, and such.