I think you make a good point about Max's "elegance of design," Peter. Threads posted on newsgroups are quite a bit harder to follow. If there is a misunderstanding between people in a newsgroup, it can't be cleared up immediately because messages don't appear immediately - so misunderstandings tend to "stew" and expand and develop into animosity. Chat rooms have the immediacy, but they don't give people the time to think things out and post a permanent, reasonable statement - so conversations in chat rooms tend to stay on the surface. The Mudcat Forum is an almost perfect balance between a newsgroup and a chat room.
The presence of the database and the Forum Search help, too. Most of us have the feeling that we are contributing to a permanent body of knowledge, and I think that helps remind us to use care in what we post.
Besides all that, we just have a lot of nice people here who also happen to be very knowledgeable and talented. It's a nice place to be, isn't it?
-Joe Offer-