Most people steer clear of those threads, because they do tend to turn nasty. It doesn't take many people to turn a thread nasty, and it can be done from any direction. But I don't actually think it's a matter of
"so many Mudcatters".

The pity is that too often threads that could be an opportunity to explore issues on which people disagree, are turned into undignified and unpleasant squabbles.

I've sometimes wondered whether some people have absorbed an assumption that strong beliefes need to be expressed in an aggressive way in order to be counted as sincere. Which is nonsense.