Have we lost civility and respect on Audio forums?

grislybutter: Ironically, I used to work with a girl that flipped a man off while driving.  It happened to be the top man at Exxon, one of the largest refineries in the area and they held the largest contract that the company I worked for had, worth millions.  This man went into the office and told our president that it was her or he'd cancel all of the contracts.  She was fired on the spot!

@everyone I have had to catch myself.  People challenge your integrity. People speaking disrespectful to you. I come from an era where I was raised by grandparents and you just didn’t say certain things to a woman or a man.  The internet has made it easy to be thumb thugging out here.  Because you never see people in person. But I just think in Audio we got to be better.  I’m going to enjoy this passion of ours.  Not argue all day. 

It’s the Wild West with words I guess. 

No we have not lost civility and respect altogether. However certain people out there find that anonymity of the internet gives them free license to say whatever they want to. I find audio forums to still be generally civil with the occasion exception.

Emotional investment in one’s beliefs can bring out the worst in people. For instance I know, as much as it can be known that basic cables are audibly transparent although it is possible to make cables with high enough inductance, capacitance and/or resistance to turn a cable into a low pass filter. I know as much as something can be known that power cords make no actual difference unless the gauge is too low to power the component ad needed. I can say these things with zero vitriol but one can count on some very uncivil responses. And fingers will point my way in accusation of uncivil behavior. And it goes both ways. Emotional investment can do that to people. Simple statements of fact will seem like a personal offense.