I think you may very well have said something similar before?

However, there are those who don't know "how to behave" and others who just "will not behave" and whether they're like that in real life or just on forums where they can hide behind the cloak of anonymity, we won't get beyond suspecting that to be so.

Just imagine a face-to-face discussion taking place where people are welcome to join in and some blankety-blank starts trying to be funny so what happens? Usually it'd be either end of discussion or one of the participants would respond with some choice words leading to a slanging match? Why do it on here? Can't they see where it's OK to join in with their style of banter and where it's not?

Your mention of newcomers is valid and nowhere was it more so than on the old Q & A where the unknowing asked a qestion that'd been answered a hundred times before so they got a mouthful from "the usual culprits".

In some cases it would have been "nicer" to have said something like "Have a read through the pinned thread at the top of the page and come back if that doesn't solve your problem" rather than "Here's another one, they're too thick to learn or they're too idle to look..."

Remember those enormous sig pics? Works of art they may have been but the huge ones taking up so much space ruined many a discussion and even today, there's the odd one now and again coupled with a senseless gif posted by a wanna-be which has absolutely no relevance to the discussion.

Also, there's those who delight in making a personal comment about another but get all het up if responded to in a like manner? A particular mention of Rommel springs to mind......

So what's the answer? I dunno and it's OK saying "live and let live" but some want their way of living (posting) but don't consider the majority who don't......