In my posting and perusing of totse I notice that some forums have a decidedly more chilled out or helpful than others. What I am curious it why? Is it the nature of the subject matter of some of them, or is it the people?

Least Hostile

Printed Matter: I suspect this is because the topic of books doesn't attract so many children, plus there is no politics and really, no wrong answers; only different opinions.

Travellers Travails: Same Reason as Printed Matter

BLTC: This may seem like an odd choice but generally, even if you get called a fucking moron you will still get the info you ask for. Probably because drugs are a dangerous business and at least a handful of the forum members will look out for less experienced users.


Most Hostile

Bitch and Moan: Because the majority of people who go there are either venting or generally angsty assholes. For every interesting argument, there are five which decent either to childish name calling, totally off topic or a Bitch fest about grammar and spelling.

Lab Tips: I admittedly almost never visit that forum, but every time I browse it I see someone getting torn to shreds over a question. I guess it is understandable with some of the questions involving Meth Labs, but it seems like a place with no tolerance for ignorance.


Everything else I frequent to is mostly in the ego or art sections, plus Rock and Roll, and they all are somewhere in between. I cannot speak for any other forum.

there are too many forums to even rank

This.
On slow days when there's only 50 or so people on the board - everyone gets their own forum. :)

The 23rd least hostile forum is Spurious.

Well, they don't need to be ranked. Just a few notable ones highlighted, im just curious as to why people are are are not assholes...

Bad Ideas is a fucking war zone.

I find that fitting.

Frequenting them regularly myself, I'd say that Politics and My God are amongst the hottest grounds to tread on the site. One misstep and a fucking mine goes off.

Obviously, those kinds of topics will always instigate strong opinions, so argumentation is to be expected.

The trend tends to be that the more users viewing the forum, the more hostile it becomes.

i pwned a guy on printed matter the other day.. he tried defending ayn rand. and i FUCKING despise ayn rand

haha yeah lab tips. you ask a question and 9/10 out of you get the repsone "if your even asking the question, you dont deserve an answer" or a variation of that.

I'd say the tech forums are pretty chill, only because we're about information, not growing your e-penor.

OI is another good forum. People are always helpful with new recipes and tips.

*ObZ

SOTD is a non hostile forum, because there is alot of hippy type dudes there, that are pretty chill.

Conspiracy is overrun with debunkers, who pretty much flame for no good reason, and have nothing better to do.

SG has the hostile metaphysicist, pretty much creating the majority of hostility here, which is why I have to re-register everyday.

I say fuck him!