Excellent question.... There are few patterns that present themselves we all have been guilty of something at certain point in time. It also varies with personal things going on in our life. It can go from "this is really interesting, I'll contribute to move the ball forward" or there are times where its all about goofing around and of course the WTF extreme where one may get engaged in useless and unproductive abusive name calling crap. The last one I am really weary is politics and doomers where either we are bound for a revolution or humanity extinction.....sigh to the power of aghhhhh..... And then, I am still here having fun after all this time. I have seen names come and go and it will continue to happen and I will watch it all because I am here for the long haul. Again, excellent question !!!! Those are becoming rare....

I've learnt a few new concepts and terms and have found some people willing to explain things to me in layman's terms which has been useful; leading to my being able to follow subsequent posts on those subjects.

Discussion processes? I'm afraid I may have got a bit more argumentative since first joining up and continue conversations with people even though we disagree; when I probably should drop them sooner!

Yes I have.

As people are here a little bit longer they lose their FB level of reactiveness and might actually raise their own point without degrading into "screaming" matches and insults.

Naturally some people are just built that way.

More people here tend to actually link their sources too. It's refreshing.

Many folks express a sense of relief.

Not really . I'm guessing we're a bunch of hard heads .