I think that the evolution of the internet in the last 12-18 months has a bad impact on the communication in the community. Being involved in a lot of forums, I can say that it's in the simulation community that I've found the best ones : the passion, the technical focus and a good moderation keep us in a good path, with enough incidents to avoid sleeping and repetitions...
Since last year, I notice a much more agressive communication from some people that probably think that it's necessary for their diffusion, commercial or not. I think it's a side effect of the facebook pages : the level of communication is very different there, with too much affectivity to stay on the technical points. In our forums, that give us the same annoying teasing (you know, the guy who didn't use FSX anymore but who have seen that the new X company is doing an add-on and is so confident in the quality they will reach that he's considering to reinstall the whole thing... I can show you some of them...), comparison between add-ons that become competition between two fan teams, and, overall, a lot of true aggressivity against people on the forums who try to discuss with objectivity, because objectivity needs that you talk also about the things you don't like.
But the truth is that it occurs 4 or 5 times in the 12/18 months, and that in each case, you could have find the same persons involved.
I had to mention that because I thougt your post of the other day was aiming against this particular people. I can understand your reaction, because I think it was your way to defend a certain vision of the community against these guys. I thank you for that. So I wanted to add two things :
1. if you look the recent actuality, the fact is that these guys are dangerous especially for themselves and the people they pretend to help. Talented and promising author have missed the launch of very interesting add-ons because of the response they give to the community... That's easy to see.
2. so, considering that important contributors like you could quit the forums because of these evolution is very sad : it will take us closer of a result that is not certain...