It seems to me that the boards have become somewhat more argumentative of late. I think that this may be a cyclical event, or may be one of the side effects of having a growing community.
For myself, I think the best I can do is to try to respond in a polite and respectful manner to disagreements. Sometimes, new members of a community can learn from other members who can serve as models. I know that the rules thread is posted in each forum, but perhaps there might be a larger discussion about some of the issues that people have raised in this thread. I think we need to try to keep EN World a place where people feel free to express their opinions. At the same time, I think we need to remember that even if we strongly disagree with another poster, we should give that person the same respect that we wish for ourselves.
I admit that some threads can become very heated. I think that that we have to realize that many of the disagreements are over matters of taste. For example, I cannot in all honesty say that one set of rules on magic is inherently better than another set of rules, let alone more realistic. What I can in all honesty say is that I believe a given set of rules works better for my game than another set, or that I like certain aspects of a rule set for various reasons. In contrast, saying that something is horrible -- without explaining the reasons behind the statement -- tells me very little as someone reading a thread. Similarly, attacking someone else does not really give me any information on a topic. It does tend to make me more skeptical of what someone is stating, as I think it is more important to evaluate the quality of someone's ideas than make personal attacks. (In the cases where I disagree strongly with someone, it is usually over ideas. Personal attacks tend to cause valid points to be ignored, and are a sign to me that it might be a good idea to contact a moderator.)
I don't think any single rule set can please everyone. We all have our indiividual tastes as gamers. However, we can perhaps realize that there is a difference between objective facts (for example, citing errors in a print run) and subjective opinions (such as Company X is greedy and its leaders should be tarred and feathered.) We all have our own opinions and experiences. However, I think we benefit by sharing these opinions and experiences. I think that a good dialogue requires mutual respect and effort to try to understand different view points. Even if we continue to hold the same views, we can at least understand how someone else can have a different viewpoint.
I think that if we want this to be a friendly online community, we need to work at it. One thing that we can try to remember that someone we disagree with is not necessarily an enemy. I don't want to see people feel afraid to post or feel that their opinions will automatically be discarded by their fellow posters.
