I value ET because it is frequented by people with an amazingly diverse and in-depth knowledge base, and I have a rough feel for each contributors area of expertise.

High signal to noise ratio, in other words.

But most importantly, I know the regular contributors here well enough that I can extend the presumption of good faith. While that does not permit one to suspend good sense entirely, it does mean that I do not have to scrutinise each post for ulterior motives, as I would if I were reading - say - the comment thread on a newspaper article. And it permits me to read ambiguous contribution in the more favourable of the possible ways.

I would argue that the mutual presumption of good faith is what defines a "community." And, without wishing to play amateur psychologist, I think that the partial breakdown of this mutual presumption of good faith between the long-time contributors is what makes the flame wars here more painful (and more personal) than what their actual content (usually reasonably polite, by internet standards) would seem to justify on its own.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.