From my perspective, interpersonal and conceptual devolution rear up on all sorts of internet based modes such as this.
It's crept into the majority of groups I've been a part of over the years. Hilariously wide ranging modalities such as pet toad boards
to African-American hair care FAQs to forums of the most esoteric sub-genre of the wildest woo. ...Heehee!
A few things things that may be causes of such derision come from some participants not realizing:
--- Forums are not exchange based conversations.
--- Your personal opinion of someone else's post matters deeply only to you and is best kept to yourself.
--- Conjecture
(which is often misconstrued as opinion) does nothing to move along what you mistakenly considered to be a conversation in the first place.
So we can empower ourselves by simply:
--- Staying clearly on topic and being very concise.
--- Ignoring the posters that either blatantly or subversively take away from what is being built.
Agreeably, the looping debates are tiresome; and yes, I've pulled way back from reading and participating on this and other forums.
Time is so precious and such of the essence that I just can't see fit giving it up to those who erode community rather than offer substance.
