Why discussions generate into personal affronts...

A big factor is the 'keyboard warrior' mentality.  People are SO brave when there aren't any true consequences to be paid.  This very well may be the primary reason for all the negativity.

Hey, look on the bright side. The forum could be unmoderated. 😬

mrearl
Here's another observation: The less a person knows, the more vehement he is. And I'm sure that that observation is going to ignite some vehement responses. But being information-proof is a self-reinforcing condition.

>>>>>I totally disagree!! 

Having been a Audiogon member under two different handles going on seventeen years, the clashes never cease for the very reason that Audiogon is made up of two camp's, The Audiophile Music lovers and the Technophile geeks. For example, back in the late 90's I was a member of the Washington State Audio Society. Once a month we would meet at a church on Mercer Island, on the bottom floor that was nicely finished, and we would evaluate gear provided by Definitive Audio or Magnolia Hi-Fi and on occasion Bob Carver would show up. Many of the members were
Technophiles that are just into specs and are only analytical of sound from a speaker, instead of enjoying the music. The one meeting I decided
to leave the club was on the subject of how to make a power cord. God help me...but the night was special due to the fact Magnolia provided Denon's top high end system, the big gold mono blocs and the matching gold components. I brought some great original master CD's, Copeland, Brubeck, Beethoven and a few others. The moment I loaded the Denon player and hit play most of the members got up, went to the back of the room to chat in small circles. Another example is one of the members whom I've known for many years, has an average system in his home in the $40K range and every year he sells and buys, and only has 20 CD's in his collection and when we first met in the early 90's I brought some Dylan over, and he asked, who is Bob Dylan ? The only clashes I have on Audigon are from Technophiles since I'm in the other camp.