christiefan915
Catalyst
The drop in civility and manners has nothing to do with AOL or any other board.
Even among many of the original fp-jpp posters I have noticed a tangible drop in civility and manners. You would be surprised how seemingly well mannered people can devolve into foul mouthed, ill tempered, emotionally unstable, slandering, libeling, personal vendetta-pursuing, cynical goons.
I know teenagers and children with better manners than some adult message boarders.
I think it is a phenomena more broadly: the internet has bred, and provides safe harbor, for the worst instincts in humans who are too weak to exercise self-control. And I think it is worse now than it was ten or fifteen years ago. Part of it is the safety of an anonymous keyboard, part of it is lack of moderation, and part of it is the general acceptance of posters and moderators to tolerate racism, misogyny, and lying. I mean, these days when a rightwing message board poster calls black people n****ger or women c**ts, their fellow rightwing posters will provide safe harbor for it and will barely bat an eye
Very well said.