Obviously there are many differences in the community and all our rows take place in the context of some of them.  But I'm not convinced the differences, per se, are the problem.  It's not as if we are on the opposite sides of some war.  My recollection of most rows is that somebody felt personally hurt by some criticisms, mounted an inadequate defence, and was then pilloried some more.  At some point somebody missed a cue that it was time to lay off - something which is much easier to do in cyberspace than in the real world where there are a lot more cues to work off.  Of course rows are always framed in some ideological way - its about religion, or sexism, or racism - but the actual hurt is often a lot more personal than the failure to sustain an argument.  I don't think there is any way we can stop these things going wrong sometimes, although I do believe there are more things we can do to fix them when they do go wrong.

notes from no w here