It's worth mentioning that the d-list had the same effect, though probably reached even less people. Only a tiny fraction of the player base contributed there. Discussions were not always courteous over there, either.
I'm not saying things are perfect here, but the only significant difference I see between the the d-list and the forums are that the latter managed to attract a lot more of the player base than the former had. More rude and unacceptable behavior, sure, but also more constructive and friendly behavior. More of it all. Was the ratio of bad behavior to good behavior better before the forums? Maybe. I can't reject it outright, it's been a while... But I do not believe the difference was all that significant, and I do believe that bad behavior is encouraged first and foremost by the number of participants, and not by the medium of communication used. The more people that listen to what anyone has to say, the more likely one of them is to be offended, and thus the more likely a negative reply is to occur. Keeping things civil between 10 people and between 100 is not the same game at all.
