You know, it's amazing how many people don't come here to talk about association football. I'm one of them, so I'll have to address the original point of this thread.
We have a set of rules in place at the Barrow-Downs. The choice we have all been given is to obey them or leave, and some popular and respected members have been banned over infringements of them. This has been done so that the Downs will not be one of those forums where newcomers who suggest provocative ideas can be flamed into oblivion by bad-tempered long-term members like me. It has also been done because we pride ourselves on the quality of our discussions, and, I think, because we're more concerned here with sharing opinions and information about Tolkien than doing battle or being challenged. This is a community, not a competition; although that's not to say that we want everyone to agree on every subject. Where there's disagreement, I tend to side with the most convincing argument rather than the most impassioned plea, because no amount of passion ever made night into day or twice two into nine. All I've ever seen it do is turn an interesting discussion into a slanging match, but this forum wouldn't afford very many examples of that because we have rules.
Davem makes a very good point: we don't know who's reading what we say, and who's to say that my idea of a sharp retort isn't a dire insult to someone else? Nobody has an inalienable right not to have people offend them, but that doesn't mean that we should all have free licence to offend in the name of debate; so we observe rules of courtesy: basically, no
ad hominem attacks, keep to the subject, don't be sarcastic or abusive and make your point with facts and reasoning. It can be fun to see two very well-informed people swapping quotes and dancing on the line of acceptable behaviour, but I prefer to read informative arguments rather than expand my store of snide remarks. Some might argue from my recent posts that it's become rather too full already.
Anyway, that's quite enough response to this old chestnut. It was discussed
way back in 2002, and has been revisited several times since. I find it as tiresome as Bêthberry does, but sometimes I torture myself by responding in several paragraphs when 'not again' was my initial reaction.
[EDIT] I now have 1,912 posts recorded under a picture of a
Titanic survivor. I'm tempted never to post again.
pps. Although I did, almost immediately. So much for that idea.