RE: the question: ":Why do forum interactions become contentious". . .

@stuartk
Don’t let a few jerks spoil your enjoyment. Hope you come back soon - we need more "considerate, respectful, thoughtful" folks on this forum so that we can all benefit.

Often, it’s surprising how narrow minded some folks are in this forum. Many of the contentious posts are from people who think that their truth is the truth for all. In fact, it’s not their truth but their perception. Everybody’s perception, preferences, hearing, audio chain, room modes, power quality, transparency, noise floor, etc etc is non-identical, so it’s evident that what one experience may not be the same for others. Like most men think their driving is above average, I think many audiophiles think their hearing is superior - this means many are overestimating their sonic acuity. The best we can conclude is that if enough voices say that a component performs a certain way, then chances are the component will perform similarly in one’s own system - there are no guarantees. This includes cables. Speaking of cables, there also seems to be an immature resentment of the high prices thus a few folks become anti-cable spending ignoring the performance improvements that better cabling provides. Many of these folks rationalize that it must be a placebo ignoring testimonies - placebos don’t work this way and people aren’t easily fooled when parting with significant money, in fact I’d argue that discernment increases with increasing cash outlays.

Also, there seems to be animosity towards MC on this forum. People with hair triggers waiting to jump on MC, although MC seems to provoke sometimes as well. I strongly suspect that the vitriol on this forum regarding Tekton speakers is directly related to resentment of MC who seems to default to only Tekton speakers and Raven amplifiers as the best answer when in fact there are many preferences and ways to achieve superior sonics.

Some folks get so emotionally invested in their opinion that they perceive challenges to their opinion as somehow challenging/insulting themselves.  I suspect many anti-cable folks fall into this category and are so emotionally entrenched that they cannot emotionally look at evidence to the contrary.  Many of these folks experience emotional pain when they admit they’re wrong so avoid it at all costs.  The truth is that varying opinions leads to debates which help us to learn and grow.

Always look at the bright side. It beats shooting each other. 

It’s a great philosophy.  An attitude of gratitude leads to a joyful life.  Too many people focus on what’s wrong with the world which isn’t healthy mentality.  If one focuses on the news, which is heavily slanted to the negative and entertainment ratings, will lead to a negatively balanced point of view.
The good news is that people can change for the better.  How?  Thinking is nothing more than asking and answering questions. Negative people are constantly asking themselves “what’s wrong with ___”.  So asking better questions such as “ what’s great about this, what can I learn from this, what I am grateful for” creates healthy thinking.  Also, intentionally changing focus from a negative to a positive also greatly helps one’s mentally.