This is a hard subject. By and large, the forum does not cause these kind of incidents. As Anaris says, they happened back on the old e-mail list as well. And they occasionally happen on IRC. Or IG. Or on MSN/Yahoo/whatever. People got pissed off all the time, and had huge arguments IG. We had some epic flamefests on the DList.
The reason they seem so bad now, is because the forum allows much easier viewing, and in away brings them out into the public eye on a much more widespread basis. Many more people participate on the forum than on the old DList, or in any single realm.
The forum is a great opportunity to build a community. It is rather sad that so many people feel the need to abuse it, and that they have a right to be !@#$%^&s here. I've tried to start some threads among the moderators regarding a moderation policy, but they never got any traction. I would be happy to participate in a moderation policy thread, if anyone thinks they have some good ideas on how to approach it.
