I'm surprised to find myself the 116th most frequent poster when I'm very far from being a forum regular, so it's clearly a very small community who're routinely active.
Much of this thread is about how awful the local boards are, and there's some truth to that charge. Particular posters who refuse to separate IG from OOC seem to use any and every opportunity to bash those they perceive as enemies. This is a lousy way to play the game and makes the individuals in question look like the most extraordinary douchebags. However for every one of those there are a half-dozen regular posters in those boards who are friendly, helpful and often insightful.
I don't think those latter discussions hurt the game at all, any more than when any bunch of gamers meet up socially and swap war stories. Indeed as a player I very much enjoy finding out how other players feel about events in parts of the game where I'm active - not to mention getting some insight into events elsewhere.
The question is how to restrain the handful of forum bullies so that the rest of us can enjoy these discussions. Perhaps increasingly severe forum bans for frequent offenders?
