I'm a relatively recent poster my self although I was a lurker and occaisional Guest w/name poster for a year and a half. I understand what you are asking and it takes a little while to learn who is who. The anonymous guests who say snotty things are hiding behind a cloak of no identity. There are also professional grumps with names. Those people can be contacted by the personal message system and have some accountability. Then there are single issue people. And then there are the those for whom the only thing is getting the lyrics into the Digital Tradition and they get grumpy about the story tellers (hence the BS designation) and they get grumpy about what they consider to be "the Rules" (an inevitable reaction of the literary scholar mind). So yeah, this isn't exactly an early christian love feast. Except that within a few weeks you figure out who is one of the flamers, who is one of the grumps, ignore those, and interact with the majority--and they're a pretty good group. And lots of them really know stuff. Don't be put off by literary jousting and the fact some of them have certain dislikes and narrownesses. Don't take it 'personal'.