Sum4All, you write: "We need to ask ourselves, having been maligned by other individuals, how is it that we can become so upset by the words of others when they don't know who we are, what we look like, where we come from or most anything else that is really important about us. What was really attacked was a discreet idea, separate from who we really are, yet we take such offense."

While I am in agreement with the spirit of your post, the above argument can be used to explain exactly why it is that people get sideways with each other on message boards. Precisely because others do not know us, what we look like, our backgrounds, where we come from, etc., they are, necessarily, judging us based solely on our ideas. I would submit our ideas are exactly what is so important about us, and those other factors above actually serve as means to develop bias for or against someone. So here, someone's "essence" gets attacked - very sobering indeed!

Of course, many tip off their character by their postings, so their ideas then get viewed either beneficially or toxicly. And, of course, in a world of blindness to gender (ha!), a poster with a feminine handle has a decided edge, as these boards tend to be dominated by males, many of whom fall over each other in attempting to be the most chivalrous toward the rare female! (Apologies to the very fine female posters on this board, who would be welcomed and appreciated on any Agoracom board irrespective of gender.)

I've often thought that one of these stock message boards ought to be the subject of an entire semester's psychology course - can you imagine the excitement of every class as new, fresh and controversial material would be added constantly! An SH board could be used for the introductory class, as people there are more obvious (they darn near wear black and white hats!); the advanced class would be here on Agoracom, where a student would need some experience to sift through the subtleties.