This forum format strongly encourages pointless arguments because of the lack of immediate personal response and anonymity. It was evident in Usenet and IRC already in 80s and 90s, where pointless and very fiery arguments were happening all the time. Even though modern platforms like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook obviously do everything they can to make the problem even worse (because it’s directly good for their bottom line), they did not invent the fundamental toxicity.
I have improved my thought patterns from these discussions, though. It’s just not obvious to anyone watching, because the improvement almost never happens directly and immediately from the current discussion. But it happens over time. Hopefully towards the better and not so much towards the worse.
This forum format strongly encourages pointless arguments because of the lack of immediate personal response and anonymity. It was evident in Usenet and IRC already in 80s and 90s, where pointless and very fiery arguments were happening all the time. Even though modern platforms like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook obviously do everything they can to make the problem even worse (because it’s directly good for their bottom line), they did not invent the fundamental toxicity.
I have improved my thought patterns from these discussions, though. It’s just not obvious to anyone watching, because the improvement almost never happens directly and immediately from the current discussion. But it happens over time. Hopefully towards the better and not so much towards the worse.