Thank you guys for raising this issue.
To be fair to the Mods though, why should we not better self govern these threads and thus not have to rely on the Mods to be the bad guys? Are they being paid for being the peace keepers here? You are expecting an unfairly huge time commitment and a supreme effort from them to constantly baby sit the behavior of unreasonably pissed off commentators.
It very sad to see so much anger and vitriol being put into so many of these recent comments and threads, but the Mods aren’t our parents or wardens, and if we members can’t or won’t do a better job policing these threads ourselves and controlling our collective tongues, maybe the Portal will eventually wind up having to shut down more and more of these problematic discussions. That likely would just become a tiresome whack-a-mole game though.
But the big increase in pettiness, name calling and otherwise churlish behavior seems to show in some members here a weirdly perverse pride for being such gleeful disrupters of these usually useful and helpful discussions. And it’s worth pointing out that quick triggered, hot headed respondents to snarky challenges are ultimately as culpable as the inflammatory, inciting initial commenters. We too often knowingly seem to be self destructing the Expo Portal, going along a similarly venal path that unfortunately is so evident in other aspects of US society today.
I will admit though, that some of these purposely disruptive threads and comments seemingly are initiated or posted with the otherwise laudable intent of starting justifiably stimulating, controversial or even humorous discussions. The better ones that do that can serve a valuable and entertaining purpose.
But, just wait for it....this post will probably also get the sadly expected, now usual amount of negative, angry responses from “offended” offenders, and ironically that really reaction will just serve to prove my points. N'est-ce pas?