Low activity moderation that doesn't read its own forums and is strictly policy-based + obvious first port of call = toxic hell, every time. It's better here than the average Steam discussion forum at least, which is sort of like saying falling into lava is better than falling into acid.

Some people have no fallback because they've already been run out of other discussion forums. Some just never bothered to look. Some use it as their toxic opinion dumping ground because it won't fly anywhere else. Some use it as a source of entertainment through being annoying on purpose. Some are pedants wandering around from place to place to quibble over their favorite minor subjects. Many will lie to you about why they are to present themselves as higher-minded than in reality. The reasons are many, but the truth is always thus: any serious, productive discussion that happens here has always been largely by accident (or involves really stretching the hell out of the definition of 'serious, productive discussion'.)

But maybe that's become the point over the years, whether intentional or not. If you wanted to set up a honeypot to lure most of the worst posting behavior into one place and away from topical subforums, well, it'd probably wind up looking a lot like this.