I have just spent some time reviewing the List's archives for the past several months, and it is clear something is changing and not for the good. The dialogues have become more combative, argumentative and downright mean. The individual contributions have become more aggressive, intolerant, patronizing, bullying, insulting, and downright mean. There has been a steady decline in fairness, civility and just plain listening.
It has gotten to the point where a person needs to dress in helmet and full padding before submitting a post. How many persons, who would otherwise contribute to the List, simply choose not to - feeling it's not worth the hassle?
What's going on?
The fact that this list is the last avenue of complaint for people that have complained everywhere else and been ignored doesn't help. A lot of threads here are started by trolls, so trolling becomes a natural part of them.