What happened to this forum?

[Padfoot]

I'm a relatively new forumite so I can't attest to the supposed civility of the "good old days" but I what I can say is that I've seen a marked increase in trolling in the past 2 months as compared to when I first joined about a year ago and it has come from all angles of the political spectrum not just the left attacking the right.  I think part of it has to do with the election heating up and people getting riled up about their candidates and their beliefs.  In a similar vein I've noticed some new posters around which I'm sure is also related to the election.  I also think its hard to keep intelligent posters on the forum when you have people like BRTD going around espousing the joys of being a troll.

That being said, I think there are still enough level headed forumites around to have intelligent discussions with even if we are occasionally interrupted by rude comments.  But I also don't think that the poorly mannered forumites among us are going to be leaving anytime soon.  They gain too much pleasure from seeing the rest of us squirm.  The only way to really get rid of them is to ignore them but I'll be the first to admit its hard to carry on a conversation about religious freedom when you've got Richard Dawkins and Pat Robertson screaming at each other in the background.  We just have to do our best to screen out the garbage and only engage ourselves with people who are willing to respect the opinions of others even when they disagree.