Originally Posted By: Dignan
I've been taking it a little easier here in the last few weeks because I want to avoid the heated discussions. I don't feel like they're healthy for me or the board in general. Sometimes I think everyone could take a step back (certainly myself included) and take a deep breath and carry on a rational conversation.

This is mostly what triggered my post (well, that, and some recent reflection due to a potential job change). Your step back from the tech here was noticeable enough to me at least, and it happened at a point when I was somewhat being intentionally antagonistic. And it's the second time this year I've noticed "heated" discussions in the tech areas of off topic that seemed to drive some folks away (at least from the immediate discussions).

As others have pointed out here, the bar for this community is usually much higher then other communities, and it's something I'd like to keep that way. The commentary here has generally been much better then the communities at Engadget, Gizmodo, Reddit and such, though it has seemed to dip a bit towards their direction at times.