"If some anonymous asshole didn't ram hot electric death someone's throat at the slightest provocation, maybe more lurkers would post. " 

On the sidebar.

Are you shitting me?  Are people honestly "afraid" to post because of what someone might say in reply?  Give me a break.

It's not fear, but I imagine quite a few lurkers' experience on CoT has been akin to poking a turd with a stick, seeing that it has in fact started to stink, and leaving in disgust.

Well ok that I can understand.

There is the fact that sometimes some people around here are violent flaming assholes.  Me, I tend not to care too much who I piss off and I'm perfectly happy telling someone they're an idiot.

18.

I'm not "afraid" to post. It's just that people generally post for some kind of positive or critical response. I'd be concerned for the mental health of someone who *wanted* the crap a lot of people spew on this board.

Muppet, do you honestly think anyone *wants* to read your idiotic "what kind of fucking moron are you" posts? Of course not.

So as the bile/signal ratio rises, the amount of content drops.

There are some evenings that we have great, productive, enjoyable discussions and I think everyone retires a little bit happier.

OTOH, when the insult codepage is reigning supreme, I think a lot of people close the browser in disgust.

That's the spirit of the quote in the sidebar. And BTW, the OP is the height of irony.

Hardly.  It's only ironic if you're a crybaby yourself.

Obviously people DO want to read my "what the fuck kind of moron are you anyway?" posts or they wouldn't clamor over my absence every time I take a day off.  :-)

And hey, if the touchy feely "band of brothers" brigade has a good time after hours, great!  Since the fuck when has ?off (or CoT) been a "band of brothers" sort of website.  I don't need yet another site where I relate to a bunch of guys through our common bonds of geekness.

I didn't say they didn't exist. I said:
"I'd be concerned for the mental health of someone who *wanted* the crap a lot of people spew on this board."

And that has always been true.

Well you must spend a lot of time being concerned, for all that you keep posting here and involving yourself in all the drama.

Given your penchant for latching onto a grudge like a pitbull and never, ever, EVER letting go, you've not a leg to stand on when it comes to casting aspersions on the mental stability of OTHERS.  :-)

People should be happy that they even get a reply.  If it was so bad, why not leave, why did you stick around to complain and try to improve things.  Must have gotten something out of it.

I can't even remember bad replies, but I remember a lot of good ones.

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/I/Imminent-Death-Of-The-Net-Predicted-.html

That is all.

Must be in regards to people that he felt were driven off.

Need to keep a list of cool people that were driven off then.  There were some JOS cross-posters maybe that got driven off.  Trying to think, maybe Tassir?  What about Bored Bystander, did he get tired of this place?  Maybe they like JOS better?

You can waste gobs of time worrying about this stuff, or save lots of time and forget it.  ;-D

people I haven't seen but who knows what their alias may be now:

ronk!
Tayssir
Stephen (pops in from time to time)
Cory Foy
Bones (mostly a ?joel poster I guess)
Tapiwa
trollop

There's a half dozen more on the tip of my tongue.

Still here, but bile/content ratio got too silly.

It kinda stopped being about conversations (however silly or light they might be) and more about just spewing out loads of shit.

Present.

In answer to the OP,
C'est moi.  I said it.  And somehow, I left the word "down" out of the sentence.  Bummer.

It's currently 80% attack, 20% relevant. It used to be the other way around, and at least then you knew who your assailants were (mostly muppet & flasher T if I remember correctly).

Muppet I agree.

Flasher T?

Anyway, we ALL do it.

but he is right, the ratios seem to have changed.

and in the past, attack seemed to be part of a discussion/argument.

now, its all "my daddy can beat up your daddy" shit.

There was a period of time when Flasher woke up every morning, pooped on every thread that occured the day before, and left for another 23 hours.