Isn’t the whole point of internet forums to argue?
I’ve been a member of more than a few over the years – some are very nicey nicey – for example the Honda Accord owners club, who are very useful if you need to fix your Accord, but ‘debates’ go a bit like this.
Poster 1 “I love my Accord, I think it’s great”
Poster 2 “yes, mine is great too, I like yours”
Poster 3 “lovely Accords lads, I like them – do you like mine?”
Everyone in Unison “yes, it’s lovely, aren’t we lucky”
They get about 3 posts a day.
Then there are others, and honestly STW doesn’t make a dent in the levels of fighting and bitching some get to.
When I was a lad Pubs used to have signs forbidding the discussion of either politics or religion – because it caused arguments which, when added to booze made fights. Most forums don’t share those rules – and without the risk of getting a punch on the nose, and the ability to ‘walk away’ whenever you choose like it never happened most people will argue way past the point of sense – it is after-all largely for entertainment – very few posts request specific information, and even less get any back.
Win, lose or draw on the internet and you will almost never change someone’s opinion, they just get bored and move on – it achieves nothing but the ‘fun’ of having an anonymous argument that won’t turn violent.
