Quote Originally Posted by Theodric View Post
The most fascinating thing I observed was that certain posters would repeatedly launch thinly veiled attacks and sometimes direct personal attacks at fans of the antagonists, implying all manner of horrible things about their person and real world morality. When finally those being assaulted had enough, even a minor quip in response would be treated as some deeply horrific crime and personal attack.
I want to highlight this as exactly the sort of rhetoric that is causing a negative downturn in the quality of discussion on the lore forums. This is an accusation of the people behind the posts, rather than a disagreement with the posts itself.

The phrase "certain posters" is the poisonous part, because it directly refers to the poster rather than the post (ie an ad hominem), and does it in a weasel-wording way where nobody is sure whether it's referring to them, and the person who wrote "certain posters" is able to neatly avoid answering any responses due to being able to go "but I wasn't referring to you, of course". It's the same type of argumentation tactic of going "some say" or "it is said", positing a nebulous antagonistic "other" whose membership is implied, but never stated.

Name the people you are talking about. Be specific. Let them respond to the accusation. Provide a strong case, with evidence, of what you are accusing them of. If actually naming the posters who you are referring to is against the rules of the venue, then don't make that argument in the first place.