Why so many angry audiophiles?

i would agree with levy03 that the general trend towards angry/rude/nasty discourse is widespread, not just in the audiophile online forum world, but everywhere online and also in more traditional media like tv/cable tv where the ’echo chamber’ effect of outlets promoting themselves and grabbing viewers by making everything more intense and incendiary

couple that with many in society struggling and unhappy with their lives and living conditions, the anger is easy to express, especially in anonymous forums

then on top of that, we have societal leaders, politicians etc etc also breaking norms of decency and classy/intellectually honest discourse, taking advantage of the pent up anger and frustration of many

clear cause and effect here, and unfortunately it is all quite corrosive

@unreceivedogma
@mapman

http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html

good contribution - that was worth the read

we kinda all know this, but it is nice to see it laid out so clearly and we are reminded of how quality posts enhance the value of the conversation and the forum overall

applies for handling disagreements outside of online forums also 

as a generality, i don’t think that audiophiles are an angry bunch

i do think that the anonymity of an internet forum using ’handles’ with minimal self disclosure allows people to be sharper and more direct with their comments than would be in real life if personal interaction and knowing real identities are a factor

i also think there are some small number of frequent posters here who engender irritation and anger of many others, whom are otherwise quite classy, courteous and respectful on the forum -- we all know who these folks are... i won’t delve into armchair psychology of why these people are what they are on this forum -- many forums have them, some forums find a way of rejecting these folks or get them to improve their behavior -- this board seems not so effective in doing that