Any discussion on etiquette within a forum will draw ire because people usually do not look in the mirror before posting - they react, live in the moment and walk away with a sense of doing the right thing, regardless if it's right or wrong in most cases.

I've belonged to some absolute huge forums in my day and this place tolerates a wider range of folks than most other forums. The moderators are the good mix of vocal, visible, invisible and allow us to rant, rave, argue, come to agreements and perhaps agree to disagree moreso than most any other forum I've seen.

Some of the banter I've seen here, I would have banned you (temp or permanent) from Flashkit or Graphics.com. Instead, it's allowed, some understandings come from it once cooler heads prevail and things are directed back into adult conversation again.

Some folks hide behind anonymity and love to say things that they wouldn't say aloud if they had attached their full name (first/last name) and their address to it. That level of accountability rarely exists in a forum; shouldn't have to. But as it stands... when a random comment comes out of nowhere and screams at a person for having an alternative way of thinking/living than they, I've seen sparks fly.

I've had a ton of people come at me because I'm all over the place in regards to my mobile device of choice - I'm paid for that, btw. But in order for me to be fair, I have to test (or endure) most of the choices out there and I try to remain even handed in my approach.

You can't expect that from everybody. Some folks have purchased only Nokia their entire lives. That's not wrong, that's their decision. Some folks don't use the phone as a phone - even I balk at that, but hey... that's their decision as well. But to come off and say that they must have a disease or disorder because they've done one or the other that differs from me seems initially intolerant.

But it's really ignorance and egocentric nature that we're bearing witness to. Guide it, call it out and say that it's wrong and they the person is capable of better, more adult conversation(s). And don't join the flame match - not unless you want to and you know that the other people involved know your stance(s).

I'm one of the few volunteer spam moderators. I've had people that have come out and stated inasmuch that they did not like me still PM me and tell me that a thread looked like spam.

It's apparent that we all like it here. We just don't always have the way of showing/sharing that information first. We just go for what we like in regards to our life and gadget choices and defend that to the death sometimes.

We're geeks... that's what we do. But we can be more civil sometimes.

I'm done. Sorry for the long post. Congrats to Dousan for starting this thread.